Kuala Lampur, Feb. 28 -- The decision by the State of Israel to launch what it described as a pre-emptive strike against the Islamic Republic of Iran marks a grave escalation in Middle Eastern geopolitics.

It is not merely another episode in a long rivalry. It is a rupture with far-reaching global consequences.

Israel has justified the operation as necessary to neutralise what it considers an imminent nuclear and missile threat. Pre-emption, in Israeli strategic doctrine, is rooted in survival.

Yet the invocation of pre-emptive force always raises a fundamental question: who determines imminence?

If that threshold becomes subjective, the international system grows unstable.

The prohibition on the unilateral use of force - anchored in...