Here, Stanford Law’s Allen Weiner, an expert in international law, discusses the legality of the attack and what might happen next. From an international law perspective, my judgment is that the attack was quite clearly illegal. President Trump’s professed lack of interest in international law seems grounded in the notion that international law is somehow incompatible with the pursuit of U.S. national interests. President Trump, in his January 2026 interview with the New York Times, said that he doesn’t need international law. In the international security realm, his work spans such issues as international law and the response to contemporary security threats; the relationship between international and domestic law in the context of armed conflict; the law of war (international humanitarian law); just war theory, and international criminal law (including transitional justice).

Source: International New York Times March 04, 2026 07:10 UTC