The war on Tehran is entirely legal

laims that international lawyers are unanimous that joint military operations against Iran by the US and Israel are illegal are risible.

Contests of legal claims are as old as the idea of law. A unanimous legal view is heard only in a well-sealed echo chamber.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong says she will leave the legality of the war to the US and Israel. But Greens leader, Larissa Waters, asserts the Iran war is unlawful, and we can’t “bomb our way to peace”. Under the Waters doctrine, Germany would still be Nazi territory. The Iranian ideology is every bit as heinous, absolutist and imperialist as the Nazis.

Those who argue that Operation Epic Fury is unlawful point to Article 51 of the UN Charter, which permits a right of self-defence in response to an armed attack. But it’s argued that the US and Israel didn’t face Iranian armed attacks at a threshold that justified their self-defence.

We would argue, however, that existing international law is more than adequate to justify the action against Iran that is taking place. The conflict didn’t just begin on February 28, when Israel and the US engaged in coordinated joint attacks on various sites in Iran. There has been an existing conflict between the US, Israel and Iran for some time. The US and Israeli joint military action is part of a long and ongoing armed conflict in which Iran is aggressor, instigator, funder and coordinator.