The UN Charter on self-defence has been conducive to maintaining relative peace

History repeated itself as farce at the White House last Thursday during the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi for talks with President Trump at the Oval Office.

As usual Trump took questions from journalists before talks in private, when one Japanese reporter asked why Trump had not informed allies like Japan that he was going to attack Iran.

His riposte was vintage Trump: “we didn’t tell anybody because we wanted surprise … who knows better about surprise than Japan?