Within days of the Russian invasion, Western countries turned to international law, imposed harsh sanctions, began welcoming refugees with open arms, and cheered the Ukrainian armed resistance.
The response sparked outrage across the Middle East, where many see a stark double standard in how the West responds to international conflicts.
“We have seen all the means that we have been told that cannot be activated for more than 70 years have been deployed in less than seven days,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said at a security forum in Turkey earlier this month.
“Amazing hypocrisy,” he said.
The Biden administration said Wednesday that the United States has assessed that Russian forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine and will work with others to prosecute the perpetrators. But the United States is not a member of the International Criminal Court and strongly opposes any international investigation into its behavior or that of its ally, Israel.
