Skip to main content

Israel's right of self-defense should not include attacking Iran

An Israeli attack on Iran could not be legally justified as self-defense, considering that Iran so far has not breached the NPT, to which Israel is not a signatory.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu listens to a question during a joint news conference with his Italian counterpart Enrico Letta at the end of a bilateral meeting at Villa Madama in Rome December 2, 2013.  REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi  (ITALY - Tags: POLITICS) - RTX1616K
Read in 

To the sentence “Israel will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East” — which is summed up in the term “the policy of ambiguity” — another expression has been added in recent years: “Israel maintains the right to defend itself.” In slight variations, this sentence has been repeatedly stated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, following the agreement with Iran that was signed in Geneva on Nov. 24.

This, if you wish, is a delicate phrasing of an explicit threat on Iran and the five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany, or P5+1 forum, that if the agreement that was reached by diplomatic means will not be satisfactory to Netanyahu, Israel will exercise the right to self-defense to forcibly stop the Iranian nuclear program. In Netanyahu’s view and that of US congressmen who side with him, a retreat from the nuclear program requires the closure of the uranium enrichment plant in Fordow and the heavy water reactor in Arak, through which Iran could create plutonium.

Access the Middle East news and analysis you can trust

Join our community of Middle East readers to experience all of Al-Monitor, including 24/7 news, analyses, memos, reports and newsletters.

Subscribe

Only $100 per year.