Pakistan Pushes Global Ban on Unilateral Drone Strikes

Foreign Ministry Warns Strikes on Other Nations a Dangerous Precedent

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry is reporting that it is pushing for a global ban on “unilateral drone strikes” against sovereign nations, something it hopes to secure support for at the United Nations.

While such a ban wouldn’t apply to the internal use of drones for military strikes, nor apparently on their use in ongoing wars, it seeks to halt the use, at present exclusively by the US, of combat drones to launch attacks on nations it isn’t at war with.

The US has launched hundreds of drone attacks against Pakistan over the past several years, killing thousands of people. They have also launched strikes in Yemen, and are expanding the fleet with an eye toward strikes across Africa.

Officials say they think they can gain support for such a ban on the basis that it isn’t just about the US attacking Pakistan, and with several other nations working on advanced drone fleets, the precedent the US is setting could lead to worldwide attacks by a number of nations at any given time.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.