Sky News reports:

[https://news.sky.com/story/the-us-war-against-iran-marks-a-new-era-of-conflict-but-what-comes-next-is-hard-to-predict-13513734]

The world's autocrats, from Vladimir Putin to Xi Jinping, will surely be sleeping a little less easy after the death of Iran's supreme leader in an operation backed by Donald Trump.

But the US decision to go to war with Iran without any attempt to gain international consensus - or even the endorsement of Congress - sets a dangerous precedent for the unilateral use of force to achieve foreign policy goals, which could make the whole planet a lot less safe.

This must be the understatement of the year. Everyone is feeling less safe. Who will be the next Poland?

Firstly, this intervention - especially as it will most likely not be condemned by the UK and other NATO allies, given they hate the Iranian regime almost as much as the US - will make it a lot harder for the West to criticise the legitimacy of similar attacks launched by their opponents.

Another understatement. 'A lot harder' - impossible would be the correct term. 

For example, Mr Putin can now brush off as double standards the fiery condemnation by Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz of his full-scale invasion of Ukraine even though there was no justification for the Russian attack against Volodymyr Zelensky's government - in contrast to the demonstrable threat posed by the Iranian regime to its own people and the wider region.

There are actually a lot of useful comparisons between Iran and Ukraine.

1. Ukraine was killing its own people, just like Iran.
2. Ukraine was restricting its own peoples human rights, just like Iran.
3. Ukraine wants a nuclear weapon, just like Iran.
4. Ukraine (and its proxy backers) want Russia destroyed, just like Iran wants Israel destroyed.
5. Ukraine is led by a corrupt regime backed by extremists, just like Iran.

The differences are:

1. Iran does not share a long border with the USA.
2. Iran was not a neutral country threatening to join an 'enemy' (to Russia) military alliance, NATO.
3. Iran is not cracking down on anyone who does not speak Farsi to hound them out of the country.
4. Iran does not have long cultural, linguistic and intermarriage links with the USA.
5. Iran was not liberated from Nazi rule by the USA in WW2 at a significant cost in the lives of their liberators.

Finally, and perhaps most profoundly, is the undeniable unravelling of a set of international rules that evolved from the ashes of the Second World War and are upheld by the United Nations to protect the sovereignty of all countries and the dignity of all people.

Well at least Sky got that right.

The UN is toast. The 'international rules-based order' has been exposed for what it is. A sham.