TEHRAN — In another flagrant breach of the fragile April ceasefire in the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran and its allies, the Israeli military executed a brazen airstrike against the Mahshahr petrochemical complex in southwestern Iran on June 8.

The Israeli military boasted of acting on precise intelligence, claiming the facilities were “utilized” by the Iranian armed forces to “produce and export raw materials for weapons production.”

Without providing any evidence whatsoever, Tel Aviv claims these targeted structures produced unique materials that serve as critical components for ballistic missiles.

It is a tidy corporate narrative, delivered with a straight face, as if dropping munitions on a massive industrial center is merely a routine supply chain audit.

This aggression exposes a maniacal legal fiction that Israel and its American partners are desperate to normalize.

The domino fallacy and the Periodic Table

The justification rests entirely on the deceptive political technology of dual use.

The Mahshahr petrochemical complex is a cornerstone of Iran’s civilian economy, processing foundational polymers, fertilizers, and consumer materials.

To treat these industrial inputs as inherent threats is to declare war on the Periodic Table itself. Toluene can be a solvent for paint or a precursor for explosives; ethylene glycol goes into car antifreeze or plastic explosives.

By the logic deployed at Mahshahr, any facility manufacturing an atom that might eventually brush against a soldier’s uniform becomes a legitimate military target.

This introduces an infinite regress of targeting logic where the concept of civilian life completely evaporates.

Under this pretext, a bakery that sells bread to defense industry workers transforms into a node in the military caloric supply chain.

The cement factory mixing concrete for apartment buildings becomes a bunker facility. A local tissue paper workshop where an engineer wipes his forehead is suddenly providing aerodynamic perspiration control for a weapons program.

If a soldier wears a uniform, the paint shop is a camouflage lab; if a general takes a photo, the camera shop is an optical targeting asset; if troops eat rations, the supermarket is an energy replenishment depot.

Recycling the Gaza blueprint

This is the exact blueprint used to turn the Gaza Strip into a graveyard of infrastructure.

For years, the magical incantation was “Hamas utilization,” a public relations gimmick that tried to justify the systematic destruction of hospitals, universities, bakeries, and places of worship.

The coordinates have changed, but the rhetorical machinery remains identical. The phrases “missile capability” or “military application” are simply the updated euphemistic code word designed to launder war crimes and grant permission to bomb everything keeping the civilian population alive.

The underlying objective is the normalization of economic terrorism and collective punishment.

The reciprocity boomerang

The architects and supporters of this fiendish doctrine fail to realize that their logic is a double-edged sword inviting devastating reciprocity.

Israel operates under mandatory conscription laws; the vast majority of its adult population has served or is currently serving in the military. Its economy is structurally intertwined with its military apparatus.

If Iran adopts this exact playbook, any Israeli power plant, automotive factory, or tech startup is instantly a legitimate target, as it sustains a fully mobilized garrison state.

A soldier drinks coffee? Tel Aviv coffee chains become strategic infrastructure nodes. A reservist drives a car? The automotive factory qualifies for neutralization.

Furthermore, this logic directly threatens American warmongering assets across the Persian Gulf. The U.S. bases in Arab states rely heavily on local civilian power grids and commercial ports. These are all open season now.

The silence of the hypocrites

Meanwhile, the self-appointed guardians of the “rules-based international order” have developed a sudden case of collective amnesia.

The silence emanating from Western capitals and human rights advocates is deeply critical. They fail to comprehend that international law is only valid when universally applied.

By nodding along to Israel’s fantastical justifications, they are legalizing the future destruction of their own industrial assets.

Tel Aviv treats international law as little more than a protection racket granting itself an infinite exemption card, yet in its hubris it has unwittingly painted a massive bullseye on the entire Western military-industrial supply chain, along with the infrastructure of Washington’s accomplices in the Persian Gulf.

So in the next round, whenever it is going to be, Iran may well act in explicit self-defense and militarily prevent desalinated water from ever reaching the mouths of the aggressors who happen to operate from certain Persian Gulf countries. After all, let us not forget that Iran has a right to defend itself.