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In­ter­na­tion­al law lec­tur­er at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, Dr Safiya Ali, says while small­er Caribbean states may feel tempt­ed to align with pow­er­ful ac­tors such as the Unit­ed States, re­cent US mil­i­tary ac­tions in the re­gion un­der­score the need for stronger re­gion­al sol­i­dar­i­ty ground­ed in in­ter­na­tion­al law and na­tion­al sov­er­eign­ty.

“The in­ter­ests of our small states are nev­er go­ing to be at the fore­front of those de­ci­sion-mak­ers, which is why we need to have strong po­si­tions and strate­gies that have our in­ter­ests at the cen­tre and our lim­it­ed re­sources and ca­pac­i­ties in mind,” she said.

Ali said the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al’s claim re­lies on one in­ter­pre­ta­tion that re­cent strikes did not breach in­ter­na­tion­al law, but in­ter­na­tion­al bod­ies such as the Unit­ed Na­tions have tak­en a dif­fer­ent po­si­tion.