Trump's unprovoked attack on Iran lacks mandate and legal basis

The first war of Donald Trump’s Board of Peace era has begun: an unprovoked, US–Israeli effort aimed at regime change that was launched amid ongoing diplomacy and with minimal consultation of Congress or the public. In an eight-minute recorded address after the first bombs fell, Trump warned that if the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps did not surrender they would be killed and that Iran’s armed forces, its missile and navy, would be smashed.

He urged Iran’s minorities and opposition to “shed from themselves the burden of tyranny and bring forth a free and peace-seeking Iran.” Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said his country had joined the attack “to remove the existential threat posed by the terrorist regime in Iran.” The maximalist aims of the joint strike have cast doubt on whether recent US–Iran talks over limits on uranium enrichment could ever have succeeded.

Delegations met under the shadow of what Trump called his “beautiful armada,” the biggest US force in the region since the 2003 Iraq invasion.

trump, iran, israel, netanyahu, irgc, regime change, uranium enrichment, us armada, congress, diplomacy