Why Israel bombed Iran in its biggest attack since the 1980s

The National

11 hours ago

Israeli leaders cast the attack as necessary to head off an imminent threat that Iran would build nuclear bombs, though it remains unclear how close the country is to achieving that or whether Iran had actually been planning a strike.
Iran maintains its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes only.
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'This is a clear and present danger to Israel's very survival,' Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed as he vowed to pursue the attack for as long as necessary to 'remove this threat'.
Israel is widely believed to be the only nuclear-armed state in the Middle East but has never acknowledged having such weapons.
Why did Israel bomb Iran?
Israel's seemingly well-planned attack comes as tensions have escalated over Iran's rapidly advancing nuclear programme, which Israel sees as a threat to its existence.
Israel said it targeted nuclear and military facilities, killing Iran's top military and nuclear scientists, adding that the barrage was necessary before its adversary got any closer to building an atomic weapon.
The strikes took place despite negotiations between Iran and the United States over the future of Tehran's nuclear programme.
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Iran had been censured by the UN's atomic watchdog a day earlier for not complying with obligations meant to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Israel had long threatened such a strike, and successive US administrations had sought to prevent it, fearing it would ignite a wider conflict across the Middle East and possibly be ineffective at destroying Iran's dispersed and hardened nuclear programme.
What did the IAEA, the UN's atomic watchdog, say about Iran?
On Thursday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that Iran had failed to uphold the obligations it had signed on to as part of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Iran rejected the accusation while the IAEA believed was a long history of non-cooperation between Iran and inspectors. However, it did not say that Iran had developed nuclear weapons.
Experts and the US government have also assessed that Tehran was not actively working on such a weapon.
Has Israel again broken international law by attacking Iran?
The short answer is: According to some, yes.
Israel has breached dozens of international laws in its onslaught of Gaza.
Michael Becker, a professor of international human rights law at Trinity College in Dublin, said: 'Based on publicly available information, Israel's use of force against Iran does not fit within the inherent right of self-defence enshrined in the UN Charter."
Protesters hold posters of Mohammad Mahdi Tehranchi (left) and Major-General Hossein Salami of the IRGC (right), who were reported killed earlier today, on June 13 (Image: Getty)
'Self-defence requires Israel's actions to be directed at an ongoing or imminent armed attack by Iran,' added Becker, who has previously worked at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
'There is no indication that an attack by Iran against Israel was imminent, nor is it sufficient under international law for Israel to justify the attack based on its assessment that Iran will soon have a nuclear capability, especially given the ongoing negotiations between the US and Iran.'
Here is a timeline of some significant events between Israel and Iran: