Yesterday, IRNA published an op-ed by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in which he argued that the U.S.-Israeli assault on Iran is a threat to the entire system of international law. “The military attacks launched by the United States and the Zionist regime against Iran constitute a clear violation of the prohibition on the use of force and an infringement of Iran’s sovereignty,” he writes near the beginning. “Their legality must be assessed against the U.N. Charter and established principles of international law, not against political arguments or justifications advanced after military operations have begun….

“The U.S. military attack on Iran had no authorization from the Security Council, nor can allegations of possible future threats, in themselves, provide a sufficient legal basis for invoking self-defense,” he writes further. “Article 51 recognizes the right of self-defense in the event of an armed attack. To treat a potential future threat as grounds for military action would be to accept preventive war based on the unilateral judgment of individual states. Such an interpretation would seriously undermine, if not altogether empty, the prohibition on the use of force of its practical meaning.”