Overview

• The Bundestag’s 54-page legal opinion warns of “significant doubts” that Israel’s June 13 Operation Rising Lion and subsequent U.S. airstrikes qualify as self-defense under UN Charter Article 51.
• Experts conclude Israel did not prove Iran was on the verge of building a nuclear weapon or that the attacks were a last resort intervention.
• The report states U.S. air operations cannot rely on collective self-defense if the Israeli strikes themselves lack legal basis.
• Authors caution against broadening self-defense rights for security aims, warning this could erode the UN prohibition on the use of force.
• Chancellor Friedrich Merz has voiced support for the operations but the federal government has not issued an official legal justification, prompting parliamentary demands for clarity.