To confront Iran, US must also confront Russia
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No regime invokes international law more fervently than when it sees its power being challenged. The moment American and Israeli forces struck Iranian targets, officials in Moscow and Tehran rushed to rediscover the UN Charter, denouncing the operation as unlawful. Their sudden reverence for the "rule-book" is politically
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Opinion To confront Iran, US must also confront Russia by Oleksandr Merezhko March 3, 2026 9:52 PM 5 min read Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Jan. 17, 2025. (Kremlin Press Office / Handout / Anadolu via Getty Images) Opinion Oleksandr Merezhko Chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Interparliamentary Ties Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine No regime invokes international law more fervently than when it sees its power being challenged. The moment American and Israeli forces struck Iranian targets, officials in Moscow and Tehran rushed to rediscover the UN Charter, denouncing the operation as unlawful. Their sudden reverence for the "rule-book" is politically convenient — but it also forces a serious question: on what legal grounds can the use of force against Iran be justified? One of U.S. President Donald Trump's principal arguments for the use of force against Iran has been the need to dismantle Iran's nuclear program. From the standpoint of international law , this is a rather fragile justification. The UN Charter permits only two exceptions to the general prohibition on the use or threat of force in international relations: a relevant UN Security Council resolution authorizing the use of force, or the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense (Article 51 of the UN Charter). Become a member – go ad‑free At least at first glance, neither exception appears to apply. Against this backdrop, Trump could have advanced a far more compelling case — one linked to Ukraine . First, the political argument. It is crucial to recognize that Iran , together with Russia, forms part of a broader coalition of authoritarian regimes — an axis of sorts — waging hybrid warfare against the Western world led by the United States. The shared objective of Tehran and Moscow is to dismantle the rules-based international order and undermine the community of democratic states. Russia and Iran are now so deeply intertwined tha...
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