Iran’s authorities warned US military personnel on Thursday that they will commit war crimes if they attack bridges and power plants and that they will not be exempt for obeying superior orders, in a new message in which they warn that Washington is normalizing these practices.
“Do not commit war crimes for anyone; pleading superior orders to justify war crimes does not exempt perpetrators from criminal responsibility,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei in a social media message in which he accused the American ruling class of “sacrificing what remains of International Humanitarian Law and the foundations of human ethics and civilization.”
In this regard, he stressed that US Department of Defense codes and manuals make it clear that members of the Armed Forces “have a duty, both legal and moral, to disobey manifestly illegal orders.”
All for their “insatiable appetite for war and slaughter,” Baqaei criticized, recalling that the destruction of bridges and power plants “is manifestly illegal and criminal” amid attacks launched by the US Army and Donald Trump’s threat to attack this type of infrastructure if tensions around the Strait of Hormuz continue.
Read more Iran’s Revolutionary Guard announces attacks against the U.S. at two military bases in Kuwait
“It constitutes retaliation and collective punishment, both explicitly prohibited as war crimes by both International Humanitarian Law and US national legislation,” said the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, who stressed that these crimes do not expire and underlined that Tehran “remains firm and resolute against illegality and contempt for the law.”
The United States Army has carried out its twelfth night of attacks against Iran, a new day of attacks with the declared purpose of undermining Tehran’s ability to threaten commercial traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, to which Iran has responded with attacks against the military bases of Ali al Salem and Al Adiri in Kuwait.
Read more Let’s talk about love: the friend I keep finding in my dreams
