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Agence France-Presse

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.
On Thursday, Trump posted footage of the destruction of a major bridge, promising “Much more to follow!”
And Iran reported major damage to a century-old medical research centre, the Pasteur Institute.
Trump has also threatened to attack oil wells, despite international condemnation of Iraqi forces who set ablaze oil installations when withdrawing from Kuwait in 1991 in the first Gulf War.
Over 100 international law experts in the US, including from schools like Harvard, Yale, Stanford and the University of California, said in the letter released on Thursday that the conduct of US forces and statements ⁠by senior US officials “raise serious concerns about violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, including potential ‌war crimes”.

Donald J. Trump Truth Social 04:02.26 12:37 PM EST
The biggest bridge in Iran comes tumbling down, never to be used again — Much more to follow! IT IS TIME FOR IRAN TO MAKE A DEAL BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE, AND THERE IS NOTHING LEFT OF WHAT STILL COULD BECOME A GREAT COUNTRY!… pic.twitter.com/3NQ5tBLgum
— Commentary Donald J. Trump Posts From Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) April 2, 2026

The letter particularly noted a mid-March comment from Trump where he said the US may conduct strikes on Iran “just for fun”. It also cited comments from Pentagon ‌chief Pete Hegseth from early March in which he said the US does not fight ⁠with “stupid rules of ⁠engagement”.
The letter was published on the website of the Just Security policy journal.
The experts said they were “seriously concerned about strikes that have hit ‌schools, health facilities, and homes”, noting a strike on a school in Iran on the war’s first day.
The US military said in ‌March it ‌elevated the investigation into a devastating February 28 strike on an Iranian girls’ school after media reports revealed ‌the probe showed US forces were likely responsible. The Iranian Red Crescent has said 175 were killed in the ⁠strike.
But the US military’s conduct does not seem to be concerning Trump, who repeated his threats on social media late on Thursday, warning that the US “hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran. Bridges next, then Electric Power Plants”.
His post added that Iran’s leadership “knows what has to be done, and has to be done, FAST!”

The crippling of Iran’s power plants would be “devastating to the Iranian people” by cutting off electricity to hospitals, water supply and other vital civilian needs, said Sarah Yager, the Washington director of Human Rights Watch.
“The US military has protocols designed to constrain that kind of harm to the civilian population, but when the president speaks this way, it risks signalling that those constraints are optional, and that is what makes this moment so dangerous,” she said.
International law permits attacks on energy plants and other ostensibly civilian targets only if determined that they primarily support military activity.
Trump’s own statements indicate otherwise, said Tom Dannenbaum, a professor at Stanford Law School.
“The reference to the Stone Age indicates that objects would be targeted seemingly because they contribute to the viability of a modern society in Iran, which is completely unrelated to the question of contribution to military action - the necessary condition for targeting in war,” he said.
Robert Goldman, a war crimes expert at the American University Washington College of Law, said that on energy sites, Trump “can’t have it both ways”.

“Trump repeated again that the United States has complete control of the skies and we can hit anything,” regardless of power supply, he said.
“Now to attack a power plant would be, in my view, utterly disproportionate because it has very foreseeable consequences for the civilian population.”
He said retaliation threatened by Iran could also constitute war crimes, such as targeting desalination plants in US-allied Arab countries with severe water limitations.
Even if the United States commits war crimes, the immediate risks for Trump, Hegseth and other officials appear limited.
The Trump administration has aggressively sought to neuter the International Criminal Court out of opposition to its arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Gaza.
Few expect The Hague-based court to target Americans and none of the countries involved - the United States, Israel or Iran - are parties to it.
But Dannenbaum said war crimes had universal jurisdiction with no statute of limitations, meaning any country eventually could prosecute.
“Even when the political conditions are such that it’s unlikely that a war crimes case would be prosecuted successfully in the moment,” he said, “that doesn’t mean that accountability won’t occur at a later date”.
Goldman said the risk to the United States was primarily one of reputation - and that undercutting the Geneva Conventions could have dangerous impacts for a country frequently at war.
“If we set aside the rules when we deem expedient, why can’t our adversaries?” Goldman said.
“It could come back to bite us down the road.”
Additional reporting by Reuters


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A US B-52H Stratofortress bomber aircraft during Operation Epic Fury. Photo: US Air Force via AFP

US President Donald Trump makes an address to the nation from the White House on Wednesday. Photo: EPA

The Iranian Red Crescent has said 175 were killed in a ⁠strike on a school on the first day of the war. Photo: AFP

US President Donald Trump and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth during a recent cabinet meeting. Photo: Reuters

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Donald Trump posted footage on social media of smoke rising from a bridge after a strike. Photo: Donald Trump via Truth Social

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A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange at the opening bell in New York on Thursday. Wall Street stocks tumbled early Thursday on the latest jump in oil prices as tough rhetoric between the United States and Iran reduced hopes of a Middle East war resolution. Photo: AFP

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Iranian men smoke waterpipes as they sit in Tehran’s Mellat Park on Thursday. Photo: AFP

Iranians gather at Tehran’s Mellat Park on Thursday. Photo: AFP

A man cooks chicken kebabs at Mellat Park in Tehran on Thursday. Photo: AP

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Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian visits an exhibition in Tehran in February 2025. Photo: Iranian Presidency via dpa

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Over 100 US experts warn that strikes on civilian infrastructure in Iran may violate international law


Over 100 US experts warn that strikes on civilian infrastructure in Iran may violate international law.


Trump’s ‘Stone Age’ threats against Iran spark war crimes alarm

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Over 100 US experts warn that strikes on civilian infrastructure in Iran may violate international law

Over 100 US experts warn that strikes on civilian infrastructure in Iran may violate international law