Has Donald Trump threatened to commit war crimes against Iran?
Experts say US president’s threatened plan to target cultural sites would violate international law

A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
US President Donald Trump has been accused of threatening to commit war crimes, after outlining plans to attack Iranian cultural sites.
Tensions between Tehran and Washington have reached an all-time high following the US assassination of top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in Iraq on Friday. The president subsequently tweeted that the US would attack sites that are “very high level & important to Iran & Iranian culture” if Tehran retaliates for the killing.
But many experts have pointed out that deliberately attacking cultural sites is prohibited under international law - so just what does the legislation cover?
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
What have Tehran and Trump said?
Iran has vowed to strike back for Soleimani’s death, with President Hassan Rouhani saying on Saturday that the US had committed a “grave mistake”, Business Insider reports.
The warning came after Iranian general Gholamali Abuhamzeh claimed Tehran had isolated a number of potential US targets across the Middle East, adding: “The Strait of Hormuz is a vital point for the West, and a large number of American destroyers and warships cross there.”
Abuhamzeh claimed that Iran had long identified “vital American targets in the region” and that “some 35 US targets in the region as well as Tel Aviv are within our reach”, The New York Times reports.
In response, Trump tweeted that the US has “targeted 52 Iranian sites (representing the 52 American hostages taken by Iran many years ago)” - a reference to a diplomatic stand-off in which US nationals were held in the US Embassy in Tehran for 444 days from November 1979.
The US leader added that “those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD” if Iran “strikes any Americans, or American assets”.
Which targets could be at risk?
The Trump administration has not clarified which Iranian sites have been targeted, but The Guardian has listed some of the likely sites.
These include air bases and other military facilities, factories producing missiles and aircraft, nuclear facilities such as the Natanz enrichment site in the central province of Isfahan, and historical sites such as Persepolis, in southwestern Iran.
Would attacking these sites be a war crime?
Experts agree that if Trump went ahead with his threat to attack cultural or historical sites with little or no military significance, he would probably be committing a war crime.
“President Trump should publicly reverse his threats against Iran’s cultural property and make clear that he will not authorise nor order war crimes,” said Andrea Prasow, acting Washington director at Human Rights Watch.
The Los Angeles Times notes that the Hague Convention of 1907 states that in times of war, “all necessary steps must be taken” to spare “buildings dedicated to religion, art, science, or charitable purposes, historic monuments, hospitals, and places where the sick and wounded are collected”.
The Geneva Convention Protocol I, signed in 1949, also states that “any acts of hostility directed against the historic monuments, works of art or places of worship which constitute the cultural or spiritual heritage of peoples” would be illegal.
Under US federal law, violating these international conventions would constitute a war crime, and anyone who violates them could be imprisoned or, if death results from their actions, could even be sentenced to death.
However, only actively undertaking such a mission would amount to a breach of law - whereas merely threatening such an operation does not. And many commentators are sceptical that Trump will ever actively commit war crimes, owing to the oversight of other departments in the US government.
These sceptics include Colin Kahl, who served as deputy assistant to Barack Obama during his presidency.
As New York magazine notes, it is “also difficult to take Trump’s threat seriously considering the fact that hyperbolic outbursts are a key element of what he perceives to be foreign policy”.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
-
Iran implies Salman Rushdie is to blame for his own attack
Speed Read
By Brigid Kennedy Published
-
The countries where men and women can be stoned to death
feature Sentencing to death by stoning of Sudanese 20-year-old sparks fresh outrage
By Kate Samuelson Published
-
Why Iran launched missile attack on Iraq
feature Strike near US consulate risks ‘sabotaging’ nuclear deal negotiations
By The Week Staff Published
-
Five British MPs escaped death after Iran diplomat ‘smuggled bomb on flight’
Speed Read Trial begins today over alleged terror plot that ‘could have triggered World War Three’
By Joe Evans Published
-
Revealed: the ‘brutal’ torture methods used by Iranian security forces
Speed Read Amnesty International report exposes ‘interrogation tactics’ used on prisoners in post-protests crackdown
By Aaron Drapkin Last updated
-
Coronavirus: will the UK government release prisoners?
Speed Read Campaigners say the move would save lives of inmates and officers
By The Week Staff Last updated
-
Two tankers attacked in the Gulf of Oman as tensions rise
In Depth Peace in the region is at stake, with each side blaming each other for the aggression
By William Gritten Last updated
-
Who is attacking Gulf oil tankers?
In Depth Tension at the world’s oil choke point could be the match that sets the Middle East alight
By The Week Staff Last updated