13 Winter 2026 Therefore, as a matter of international law, Israel had the full right to use force to defend itself, subject to the rules regarding proportionality and necessity, against direct and indirect Iranian aggression at any time between October 7, 2023, and June 13, 2025, when it initiated Operation Rising Lion.13 Second Justification: Anticipatory Self-Defense Against Imminent Iranian Threats Alternatively, it could be argued that if Operation Rising Lion constituted the beginning of a new war in June 2025 (which some have referred to as the “12-Day War”), then Israel had the lawful right to strike first in anticipatory self-defense against the imminent nuclear and ballistic missile threat posed by Iran, a regime that for decades has threatened to destroy the State of Israel. Iran’s Longstanding Threats to Destroy Israel Ever since it came to power in 1979, the revolutionary regime in Iran has sworn to destroy Israel. The Ayatollah Khameini has made such threats abundantly clear in his public statements, including Tweets, calling for Israel’s “elimination” and “eradication.”14 Iran’s foreign policy, based on its Islamist theology, demands the destruction of Israel. Iran has never accepted Israel’s existence, and refers to the country, a fellow United Nations Member State, solely as “The Zionist Entity.” Iran’s Nuclear Program Iran’s nuclear program – which the Iranians claim is peaceful – must be seen in light of Iran’s stated goal of eradicating Israel. There is abundant evidence that the Iranian regime has been working to build nuclear warheads and the ballistic missiles needed to deliver them. Iran signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1968, yet Iran began pursuing the development of nuclear weapons following the Islamic Revolution in 1979. In August 2002 an Iranian opposition group revealed secret underground nuclear facilities at Natanz and Arak meant for enriching uranium and producing heavy water. Concerns increased about Iran’s nuclear ambitions over the next decade, culminating in the so-called P5+1 group (the U.S., UK, France, Russia, China and the EU) signing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran in September 2015, the so-called “nuclear deal.” The Obama Administration later justified the JCPOA by claiming but for the deal, Iran already had enough enriched uranium to assemble 8 to 10 nuclear bombs within 2-3 months.15 President Trump withdrew the United States from the JCPOA in May 2018. The White House issued a fact sheet describing Iran’s bad faith, its decades-long support for terrorism that had claimed hundreds of American and other lives, its use of armed proxies to threaten Israel and international shipping, and other conduct the President said justified terminating the deal.16 In the succeeding years both the Biden and eventually the second Trump Administration tried to renegotiate new terms with Iran to prevent the regime from acquiring nuclear weapons, but the talks proved fruitless. By early June 2025, Israel had become deeply worried about an International Law,” UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA CENTER FOR ETHICS AND THE RULE OF LAW, June 18, 2025, available at https://www.penncerl.org/the-ruleof-law-post/israels-attack-on-irans-nuclear-weaponsprogram-is-fully-justified-under-international-law/; see also Michael Schmitt, “Israel’s Operation Rising Lion and the Right of Self-Defense,” LIEBER INSTITUTE, June 16, 2025, available at https://lieber.westpoint.edu/israelsoperation-rising-lion-right-of-self-defense/ 13. Amichai Cohen and Yuval Shany, “A New War or a New Stage in an Ongoing War – Observations on June 13 Israeli Attack against Iran,” JUST SECURITY, June 15, 2025, available at https://www.justsecurity.org/114641/ israel-iran-un-charter-jus-ad-bellum/?utm_ source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=israeliran-un-charter-jus-ad-bellum 14. See, e.g., Imam Sayyid Ali Khamenei (@Khamenei.ir), X, Nov. 9, 2014, available at https://x.com/khamenei_ir/ status/531366667377717248 (“Why Should & How Can Israel be Eliminated?”); Imam Sayyid Ali Khamenei (@ Khamenei.ir), X, June 3, 2018, available at https://x. com/khamenei_ir/status/1003332853525110784?lang= en (“Our stance against Israel is the same stance we have always taken. #Israel is a malignant cancerous tumor in the West Asian region that has to be removed and eradicated: it is possible and it will happen”). 15. President Barack Obama, “The Historic Deal that will Prevent Iran from Acquiring a Nuclear Weapon,” THE OBAMA WHITE HOUSE ARCHIVES, Jan. 16, 2016, available at https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/node/328996 16. “President Donald J. Trump is Ending United States Participation in an Unacceptable Iran Deal,” THE TRUMP WHITE HOUSE ARCHIVES, May 8, 2018, available at https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefingsstatements/president-donald-j-trump-ending-unitedstates-participation-unacceptable-iran-deal/
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjgzNzA=