With the clock ticking toward President Donald Trump‘s deadline of Tuesday, April 7, scores of legal experts and lawmakers warn that the strikes he’s threatened on Iranian infrastructure could violate international law and place millions of Iranians’ lives at risk.
In an expletive-laced social media post on Sunday, April 5, Trump told Iranian officials that Tuesday would be “Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one,” placing a hard deadline on an ultimatum for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face attacks on critical domestic infrastructure.
It’s not the first time he’s made the threat. In recent weeks, Trump has suggested the United States could hit bridges, power plants and desalination plants if Iran does not make a deal with Washington or lift its effective closure of the critical oil trading route in the Persian Gulf. As the drumbeat has intensified, Trump said on Monday, April 6, that it was “highly unlikely” he would move the deadline amid mounting concern and outrage.
International law experts and aid groups say intentionally targeting civilian infrastructure, such as power plants and bridges, can constitute a war crime. The destruction of these resources, even when the military also uses them, is likely to wreak havoc on the Iranian people, lawyers and human rights advocates have said over the last week. It cuts to one of the core principles of international human rights law: that parties in conflict must at all times distinguish between military and civilian targets.
Niku Jafarnia, a legal researcher for Human Rights Watch, said that it is technically possible for bridges and power plants to be military targets. But if civilians also use them, they become problematic targets.
However, it has not been clear from Trump’s language if U.S. strikes will make the distinction between infrastructure used only by armed forces. In recent days, the president has warned he will send Iran “back to the Stone Ages where they belong,” and threatened on Monday, April 6, that the “entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night.”
An attack on a power plant serving civilians could severely disrupt resources and cut off electricity to hospitals, water infrastructure and sewage facilities and other day-to-day services.
“That’s why the law is so particular about proportionality,” Jafarnia said. The international law principle seeks to limit damage caused by military operations, requiring that harm to civilians not be excessive in relation to the military advantage gained by such an attack.
“Unless there’s a particular power plant or particular bridge we’re talking about that is solely used by the military, these are going to be used by the general public,” she said. “Think about our own lives − what would happen if our own power plants in our own cities were suddenly attacked? What would that mean for our lives, on a basic level, of not having electricity?”
In a press conference at the White House on Monday, April 6, Trump rejected concerns that bombing power plants and bridges could constitute a war crime.
“I’m not worried about it,” Trump told a reporter. “You know what’s a war crime? Having a nuclear weapon. Allowing a sick country with demented leadership to have … nuclear weapons. That’s a war crime.”
A U.S.-based consortium of more than 100 international law experts said in a joint letter on April 2 that the conduct of Israel, Iran and the United States raised concerns of “serious violations of international law.” The experts also pointed to “alarming rhetoric” being used by U.S. officials, including Trump’s threats to “obliterate” Iran’s power plants.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told Politico last month that the targeting of energy infrastructure in the war could violate international law, suggesting all parties may have committed war crimes.
Since the war began on Feb. 28 with joint American-Israeli strikes on Iran, Iran and Israel have targeted one another’s energy facilities in the Persian Gulf, including oil fields and export hubs. The group of U.S.-based lawyers said in their statement that they were concerned international humanitarian law was violated during strikes on civilians, including political leaders who have no military role, and civilian resources, such as oil and gas infrastructure and water desalination plants.
Human Rights Watch has catalogued several instances of what the organization considers “serious violations of the laws of war” during the conflict’s first month, including Iranian attacks on hotels, residential buildings and airports in the Gulf and Israeli and Iranian attacks on oil and gas infrastructure. The group has also reported that Israel used white phosphorus in Lebanon and Iran used internationally banned cluster munitions in attacks on Israel.
These violations include the U.S. attack on a primary school in Minab in southern Iran that killed scores of children. It is considered one of the deadliest single attacks by the U.S. military on civilians in decades.
“There’s a reason that international law was imposed, in the aftermath of the destruction of World War II,” Jafarnia said. “We’re seeing so much of this unravel right now, and we’re seeing a lot of civilian casualties.”
Democrats responded with outrage to Trump’s social media post on Easter Sunday, while Republican leaders remained mum. Some of the Democratic Party’s most high-profile lawmakers have warned that the president’s proposed strikes could violate international law.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, in an April 5 post on X, called the president an “unhinged madman” who was “threatening possible war crimes and alienating allies.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called the president’s rhetoric “disgusting and unhinged,” and Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy called the proposed attacks “a clear war crime.”
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, a former CIA analyst and national security official in the Bush and Obama administrations, said the strikes could run afoul of the U.S. military’s own war guidance and put service members at increased risk in the region.
Jafarnia, of Human Rights Watch, noted the pronounced effect such threats could have on the ongoing war.
“We have seen repeated statements by President Trump and other U.S. officials, where they have threatened to carry out what would likely amount to war crimes and would likely amount to violations of international law,” she said. “We are seeing Iran taking their own action, and we are seeing, regionally, a level of destruction that is terrifying.”
Joint American-Israeli strikes in Iran and Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed thousands of people and displaced millions, according to the United Nations.
As the Iran war passes the six-week mark, the death toll has reached the thousands across multiple countries in the Middle East.
U.S.-based rights group HRANA, focused on human rights issues in Iran, said 3,546 people have been killed by U.S. and Israeli strikes in Iran since the war erupted, and 1,616 of the dead are confirmed to be civilians, including at least 244 children. About 1,200 are classified as military fatalities, and another 711 deaths have not been categorized.
Lebanese authorities told Reuters 1,497 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since March 2, including at least 129 children.
Missiles launched from Iran and Lebanon have killed 23 people in Israel, according to its ambulance service, and 13 U.S. service members have been killed during their service. Dozens of others have also been killed in the region, including in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, the West Bank, Syria, Oman and Bahrain.
Contributing: Francesca Chambers, USA TODAY.
Kathryn Palmer is a politics reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her atkapalmer@usatoday.com and on X @KathrynPlmr. Sign up for her daily politics newsletterhere.