War without limits
The German government backs the US and Israel in their war of aggression against Iran – contributing to a further collapse of international law. The murder of national leaders is becoming common practice in warfare.
WASHINGTON/TEL AVIV/BERLIN (own report) – The US and Israel are once again receiving the backing of the German government in their second war of aggression against Iran within nine months. The US-Israeli attack on Iran is clearly in breach of international law. Yet German Chancellor Friedrich Merz could only announce yesterday, Sunday, that he didn’t wish to make an “evaluation of the position under international law” regarding the war. “Now,” he said, “is not the time to lecture our partners and allies.” In contrast, he called on Iran to “immediately cease these indiscriminate attacks”. The Iranian regime may be called “murderous” but, in this conflict, is merely exercising its legitimate right to self-defence by launching missile strikes on US military bases and on Israel. By approving and backing the deadly attacks by the US and Israel in violation of international law, while rejecting Iran’s right to self-defence in accordance with the same international law, Merz has again contributed to the gradual colllapse of any legal process. Indeed, he is supporting for a US administration that in any case declares it doesn’t even recognise international law any more. The scrapping of legal norms goes hand in hand with the normalisation of decapitation strikes and bad-faith talks as a method of warfare. Once again, the first air strikes targeted Iran’s religious, governmenal and military leaders, while the US was still engaged in negotiations with Iran and pretended to be making progress. This behaviour is open to imitation by anyone waging wars in future.
Bombs, bombs, bombs
The war of aggression by the United States and Israel against Iran is already the second in just nine months. Both countries had already heavily bombed Iran in June last year. The latest war of aggression further extends the list of attacks ordered by the Trump administration in less than fourteen months. In addition to Iran, the US has already attacked Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Nigeria and Venezuela. In the latter case, American armed forces have, since last September, been regularly shelling boats in the Caribbean, claiming without presenting any evidence that they are used for drug smuggling. According to the New York Times, 150 people have been killed in the boat strikes so far.[1] In addition to those killings, we have also seen the abduction of the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, and the total strangulation of Cuba through a naval blockade. Israel, for its part, has been indiscriminately bombing Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen ever since the Hamas massacre on 7 October 2023. It has now seized further territory in southern Syria in addition to the illegally occupied Golan Heights. Israel is now preparing to annex the West Bank and, since the official ceasefire began in October, has continued the killing of Gazaens. More than 600 Palestinians have died in the Gaza Strip, the vast majority of them civilians.
Not only illegal, but lawless
While the charge that wars of aggression and deadly attacks on sovereign nations by the United States and Israel violate international law is correct, it no longer has any critical impact. In an interview with the New York Times in early January, US President Donald Trump infamously stated, “I don't need international law.”[2] He added that the only thing that could “stop” him was “my own morality, my own mind”. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reinforced this view in his speech at this year’s Munich Security Conference on 14 February: the US would, he declared, no longer place “the so-called global order above the vital interes of our people.”[3] Accusations against Washington that somehow relate to breaches of international law have become completely futile. This also goes for criticisms of massive bombardment of towns and cities across Iran, even when the bombing campaign destroyed a primary school leaving, according to the available evidence, around 150 people dead, including an unknown number of schoolgirls. The US and Israel have also targetted the Gandhi Hospital in Tehran along with civilian residential areas, including a block where former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was living. He was killed in the attack. It is unknown how many civilians have died there and elsewhere. The initial figure of around 200 circulating on Sunday is likely to be far too low.
‘I won’t lecture allies’
German leader Friedrich Merz explicitly confirmed yesterday, Sunday, that the German government would be backing the United States and Israel in their lawless onslaught. This time, Merz has refrained from describing the US and Israeli attacks on Iran as “dirty work” that needs to be done “for all of us”. That was his choice of words during the attacks last June. Back then he said Israel was doing the killing for the West, for which he had “the utmost respect”.[4] This time, Merz has limited himself to saying that Germany “shares” the “interest” of the US and Israel in ending Iran’s nuclear programme and destroying Iran’s missile and drone stockpiles. Of course, these projectiles are Iran’s only fairly effective means of defence. Merz went on to say that it would be wrong to invoke international law against the US and Israel. “There is relatively little point in making evaluations of the position under international law,” the Chancellor opined: “now is not the time to lecture our partners and allies.”[5] While Iran is exercising its right to self-defence by attacking hostile US bases around the Persian Gulf and Israel’ military infrastructure, Merz finds any resistance unacceptable: “We call on Tehran ... to immediately cease these indiscriminate attacks.”
Normalising ‘decapitation’
Nor has the German government any objections to the normalisation of decapitation strikes as a means of warfare. Israel has undertaken targeted killings of leaders of adversary organisations for years. This tactic has been used repeatedly in its war against Hamas, in the attacks on the Lebanese Hezbollah, and in the suprise strikes on Iran in the June 2025 war – again while negotiations were taking place. In this latest war of aggression, Israel boasts of having killed Iran’s supreme religious leader Ali Khamenei at the very beginning of its bombing campaign. The list of other top officials who have been killed also includes Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Khamenei, Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh, Revolutionary Guard commander Mohammad Pakpour, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Abdolrahim Mousavi, and other high-ranking military officials. By going for “decapitation”, the United States (which enabled the attack on Khamenei with intelligence information)[6] and Israel are making the assassination of enemy leaders a common means of warfare. Were Russia to follow suit, it would be legitimate to immediately assassinate the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky. And, by the same token, Iran would have every right to assassinate senior members of the US or Israeli governments. The normalisation of such practices leads to to the removal of all restraints on warfare.
Upheavals
In addition to the ongoing erosion of previously recognised boundaries on warfare, the war of aggression by the United States and Israel on Iran has the potential to cause far-reaching upheavals across the entire Middle East. It is also another step in the context of a wider global power struggle between the US and China. german-foreign-policy.com will report on this aspect shortly.
[1] Tracking U.S. Military Killings in Boat Attacks. nytimes.com.
[2] David E. Sanger, Tyler Pager, Katie Rogers, Zolan Kanno-Youngs: Trump Lays Out a Vision of Power Restrained Only by ‘My Own Morality’. nytimes.com 08.01.2026. See: A hitman and his accomplice.
[3] Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Munich Security Conference. state.gov 14.02.2026.
[4] See: Drecksarbeit and Dirty work (II).
[5] Iranerinnen und Iraner haben eine bessere Zukunft verdient. bundesregierung.de 01.03.2026.
[6] Julian E. Barnes, Ronen Bergman, Eric Schmitt, Tyler Pager: The C.I.A. Helped Pinpoint a Gathering of Iranian Leaders. Then Israel Struck. nytimes.com 01.03.2026.
