An analysis of legal difficulties in the UK government response to the US-Israeli campaign against Iran.The author Dr Aurel Sari is a Professor of Public International Law at the University of Exeter. He is a former Senior Fellow at the Lieber Institute of the United States Military Academy, a Fellow of Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe and a Fellow of the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps.

From the article:

The logic of the United Kingdom’s legal position is clear: by distinguishing between “offensive” and “defensive” action against Iran, the United Kingdom is taking and supporting only military action that falls within the exercise of individual and collective self-defense against unlawful attacks by Iran, but not the wider U.S.-Israeli offensive campaign.​

Though the basic logic is legally compelling, the practical difficulty with this position is that the United Kingdom must ensure that any support it provides to the United States remains confined to the lawful exercise of self-defense against Iran’s unlawful attacks on regional allies and the United Kingdom itself, without spilling over into supporting the ongoing U.S.-Israeli armed attack on Iran. This distinction is legally essential, but operationally fraught.