Israeli President Shimon Peres’s warning on Sunday that an Israeli attack on Iran is increasingly likely raises questions about the legitimacy of a unilateral attack on Iran based on Israel’s national interests. Peres’s threat comes just days before the release of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s report on Iran’s nuclear program and follows Israel’s military execution last week of a ballistic missile test and large-scale civil defense drill simulating a response to conventional and non-conventional missile attacks. An Israeli strike–as opposed to continuing the diplomatic and sanctioning approach currently employed by the U.N.–could have disastrous repercussions, including destabilization of the Middle East region.
