Live updates: U.S. strikes Kharg Island, official say; Trump doubles down massive attack threats
President Trump is “openly threatening” to carry out a war crime by vowing to target a “whole civilization” if Iran does not agree to a ceasefire deal and to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by his deadline tonight, human rights expert Kenneth Roth said.
“Trump is openly threatening collective punishment, targeting not the Iranian military but the Iranian people,” Roth, the former executive-director of Human Rights Watch, told NBC News, noting that collective punishment of civilians during armed conflict is a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
“Attacking civilians is a war crime. So is making threats with the aim of terrorizing the civilian population,” he said, with making threats to carry out war crimes potentially a war crime in and of itself under international humanitarian law.
International law experts have previously told NBC News that Trump’s threats to target civilian infrastructure, including desalination plants, represent threats of possible war crimes.
NBC News has reached out to the White House for further comment on Trump’s post.
The president said yesterday he was “not at all” concerned about the possibility the U.S. could be committing war crimes. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week that the U.S. military would always operate within the “confines of the law.”
