Trump’s ‘Stone Age’ threats against Iran spark war crimes alarm
Over 100 US experts warn that strikes on civilian infrastructure in Iran may violate international law
Threatening to destroy Iran’s electricity grid and to reduce the country of 90 million to destitution, US President Donald Trump is shattering precedent by not just accepting but gloating about acts seen as potential war crimes.
The consequences for Trump, at least in the near term, are probably none, experts say, as his administration works hard to undermine international institutions tasked with keeping norms.
The Geneva Conventions governing the laws of war, agreed following World War II, prohibit destruction of “objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population”.
In 2024, the International Criminal Court indicted four Russian military officials over systematic strikes on Ukraine’s power grid.
Nonetheless, Trump said in a Wednesday address that if Iran does not reach an unspecified deal with him, US forces would “hit each and every one of their electric-generating plants”.
“Over the next two to three weeks, we are going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong,” Trump said, a shift in tone after briefly suggesting, when joining Israel in launching the war on February 28, that a goal was to help Iranians overthrow their unpopular religious-led government.