Callamard: Soleimani killing breached international norms

The killing of Iran’s military leader General Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike breached international norms on extraterritorial military operations and sets a dangerous precedent that could "be a recipe for disaster", Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extra-judicial executions has said.

She told Hardtalk's Stephen Sackur: "The UN Charter was predicated on the notion that we should do all we can to prevent armed conflict and that the use of force should be very much narrowed down to very few scenarios.

"The targeted killing of Mr Soleimani completely swept away the standard related to extraterritorial use of force by a state. It targeted a state official while in the past it was mostly non-state actors or only non-state actors that had been targeted."

Watch the full interview on BBC World News on Tuesday 18 February 2020 or watch again on BBC iPlayer (UK only)