On Wednesday, Iran's Red Crescent asked the International Criminal Court to investigate the US strike on the wedding in Sirik as a war crime. The strike happened Tuesday. Amir-Ali Karimi, four years old, died at a wedding ceremony. Sixty-seven were wounded. The Red Crescent characterised the strike on a civilian gathering as a violation of international humanitarian law and asked the court to open a formal investigation. Neither the United States nor Iran is a party to the ICC's Rome Statute, meaning the court has no automatic jurisdiction over either nation. The Red Crescent went to the court anyway. It went to what remains of it.

The connection is not rhetorical. The Rome Statute covers wilful killing of civilians, attacks on civilian objects and acts that violate the principles of distinction and proportionality. A US strike that kills a four-year-old boy at a wedding ceremony in a coastal town is precisely the category of act the court was designed to examine. The Red Crescent's request is legally coherent within the court's mandate. The obstacle is not only the jurisdictional gap. The obstacle is that the United States has been conducting a campaign — confirmed on camera by Trump, executed by Rubio — to dismantle the ICC brick by brick. Five countries have left the court since the US campaign began. The court's chief prosecutor has been removed.

DiploPolis published 'A Home on Qeshm. No Court to Say So.' in August — about the bomb confirmed by the New York Times visual investigation on a residential building on Qeshm Island, three civilians dead, CENTCOM calling it a successful strike on IRGC targets. The same structural argument applies to Sirik. The evidence exists. The strike happened. The civilian deaths are confirmed. The court that examines such evidence is being taken apart by the government conducting the strikes. The Red Crescent asked the ICC on Wednesday. On the same day, Rubio announced new sanctions against ICC staff. Both events happened on Wednesday September 2.

The Israeli Defence Minister also made a request on Wednesday. Israel Katz said he was seeking Trump's support for plans to permanently expel Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. He told a conference in Jerusalem: 'There is no real solution for Gaza in the end without migration.' Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen responded that the Netanyahu government had just confirmed what his report had found — that it was implementing a plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza of Palestinians. The Board of Peace official had warned on August 26 that the alternative to Trump's Gaza plan was the next war. The Israeli Defence Minister answered that warning by asking for support to remove Gaza's population permanently.

The accountability mechanisms that exist for examining these claims are the same mechanisms under simultaneous assault. The ICC is being dismantled. The US is sanctioning its staff. The court's prosecutor was removed. Countries are leaving. The Red Crescent asked it to investigate a wedding strike on Wednesday. On the same Wednesday, Rubio extended the sanctions campaign against it. The request will not produce a judgment at the pace the dismantlement is proceeding. The sanctions will not stop the requests. Both things continue in parallel, like two tracks that do not meet.

The wedding in Sirik had 67 wounded and four dead, including a child of four. The Qeshm house had three dead. The ICC has 130 remaining state parties after five withdrawals. The dismantling has been described as brick by brick. The Red Crescent went to what remains. There was no response. There will not be, until the bricks stop coming down.