I write this in a time of great turmoil in the Middle East. Many people claim that the current conflict could become the beginning of a third world war. I am not writing to spread fear, but rather to examine a deeper theological and political question: whether this conflict can be considered a just war and whether the UK should become involved.
On 28 February a joint military operation led by Israel and the US launched targeted strikes on Iran. These strikes killed Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The operation was coordinated, in the words of Benjamin Netanyahu, to “remove the existential threat posed by the terrorist regime in Iran.” Israel also believed that eliminating senior Iranian political and military leaders would weaken Iran’s ability to coordinate attacks through regional proxy groups such as Hezbollah. At the same time, there were fears that Iran had begun enriching uranium again and was moving toward the development of nuclear weapons. Iran retaliated immediately. Since then, multiple countries have been affected by the conflict.
Within Iran itself, reactions have been mixed. Many Iranians celebrated the death of the Supreme Leader, as the country is governed by an Islamic dictatorship that has suppressed peaceful protests, denied basic freedoms such as freedom of religion and expression, and imposed strict laws on women and girls. For many Iranians, the death of the Supreme Leader raised hopes that this could be a step toward long-term regime change.
Despite this, the moral question remains whether the UK should involve itself in this conflict. Catholic moral teaching evaluates war through the tradition of the just war theory. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that military force can only be morally legitimate when several strict conditions are met. These include: lasting, grave, and certain damage caused by the aggressor; all peaceful means having been exhausted; serious prospects of success; proportionality between the harm inflicted and the evil being prevented; legitimate authority declaring the war; and right intention, meaning the aim must be peace rather than revenge.
From a Catholic perspective, the UK should not enter this war, as it appears that these criteria have not been fully met. Firstly, the threat posed by Iran was not clearly certain. Although Israel and the US claimed Iran’s nuclear programme presented an imminent danger, this was not confirmed by any widely recognised international authority. The strikes were therefore largely pre-emptive. Catholic teaching does not normally permit war based simply on prediction or fear. However, it should be acknowledged that governments sometimes possess intelligence not available to the public. If reliable evidence existed proving that an attack was truly imminent and unavoidable, then anticipatory self-defence could be morally permissible within Catholic teaching.
Secondly, the principle of proportionality appears not to have been met. The military campaign resulted in the killing of Iran’s Leader, widespread regional instability and civilian casualties on both sides including 165 schoolgirls and staff being killed during strikes in Iran. While the Church recognises that unintended civilian deaths can occur even in morally legitimate conflicts, the overall harm caused must not outweigh the evil being prevented. Based on publicly available information, the scale of destruction and destabilisation appears greater than the threat that was being addressed.
Pope Leo XIV has urged all parties involved to take “moral responsibility” and to halt the conflict before it becomes an “irreparable abyss.” From a purely Catholic perspective, the war currently appears unjust because it falls outside the strict criteria of just war theory.
Based on what is publicly known, the conflict does not meet the standards required for a just Luca Edgeley- Sheffield
