Israel’s attack on Iran’s nuclear weapons program is fully justified under international law

Excerpt

Israel’s attacks on Iran’s nuclear weapons program, which began early Friday, June 13, are lawful, contrary to the expressed views of various commentators and politicians, including Senator Bernie Sanders.

Several of these commentators have based their contention that Israel’s attack is illegal on their opinion that Israel was not responding to an “imminent” nuclear attack by Iran. But this argument overlooks a critical legal principle: When two countries are already in a state of armed conflict—in colloquial terms a war—there is no requirement to wait for “the next attack” to be imminent.

LTC Geoffrey Corn, USA (ret.), a Texas Tech University law professor and JINSA distinguished fellow, previously served as the U.S. Army’s senior law of war expert. Orde Kittrie, an Arizona State University law professor and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, previously served as the lead U.S. State Department attorney for nuclear issues.