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Source: https://www.jns.org/iran-was-ready-for-war-the-world-looked-away/
Stopping Iran Is Not a Violation of International Law
(JNS) Dr. Fiamma Nirenstein - The Iran of the ayatollahs has long been dangerous and ready for war. If the world wished to prevent it from attacking its enemies with lethal weapons, including potentially nuclear ones, then action to stop it was not only justified but necessary. International law does not forbid self-defense. The danger posed by Iran has been clear and present for decades. Ignoring it would have been an invitation to catastrophe - potentially even nuclear aggression. Tehran's ambitions were not hidden. They were developed methodically over the years and accompanied by constant acts of war carried out directly and through proxies. Yet in much of the international conversation, anti-Americanism, pacifist reflexes, and hostility toward Israel dominate the narrative. Iran is no longer described as the world's leading sponsor of terrorism, governed by a dictatorship that brutally violates human rights. Instead, it is often portrayed as the victim. Critics of Israel and the U.S. insist that confronting Iran undermines the global code of justice and morality. But such arguments reveal how compromised that framework has become. If international law cannot recognize the need to defend oneself against a war already being waged against you, then it has lost its relevance. The writer, a fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, served as vice president of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the Italian Chamber of Deputies.