Just hours ahead of his self-imposed deadline for a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, US President Donald Trump threatened on Tuesday to permanently wipe out the “whole civilization” of Iran – remarks seen as a straightforward expression of genocidal intent.
Trump published his comments as the US unleashed a wave of attacks on Kharg Island, Iran’s key oil export hub. The US and Israel also reportedly targeted bridges across Iran overnight as part of a broader assault that has killed thousands of people since late February.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World.”
Brian Finucane, senior adviser to the US Program at the International Crisis Group, responded to Trump’s threat by pointing to 18 US Code § 1091, which prohibits American nationals from committing genocide within the United States and abroad.
Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the US-based Center for International Policy, wrote that “this meets the threshold for intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national group as set forth in 18 US Code § 1091 prohibiting the crime of genocide.”
“If any Iranians are killed pursuant to this threat,” Williams added, “President Trump will be guilty of genocide, as will those assisting him.”
One expert, former Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth, noted that Trump’s genocidal threat is itself unlawful.
“Trump is openly threatening collective punishment, targeting not the Iranian military but the Iranian people,” Roth told NBC News, pointing to the Fourth Geneva Convention. “Attacking civilians is a war crime. So is making threats with the aim of terrorizing the civilian population.”
“Soldiers must refuse unlawful orders. Members of Congress must call for impeachment and removal.”
The US president set a deadline of 8 pm ET for Iran to reach a deal that fully reopens the Strait of Hormuz. Trump has threatened to order the obliteration of Iranian bridges and energy infrastructure if there’s no agreement by his arbitrary deadline.
Adil Haque, a professor of law at Rutgers University, wrote Tuesday that the international community must intervene immediately to prevent Trump from launching a catastrophic and criminal assault on a country of more than 90 million people.
“Soldiers must refuse unlawful orders,” Haque added. “Members of Congress must call for impeachment and removal. Every American who loves their country must speak out. Enough is enough.”
Iran’s negotiating position
As Trump escalated his threats to commit war crimes in Iran if its government does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian officials on Monday rejected what they called an inadequate ceasefire proposal and insisted on a guarantee that the US and Israel will not only stop their attacks, but also refrain from future aggression.
“We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again,” Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of Iran’s diplomatic mission in Cairo, told The Associated Press, affirming his government’s rejection of a 45-day truce proposed by regional mediators led by Pakistan and including Egypt and Turkey.
Trump said Monday that he said he might order attacks on all Iranian power plants and bridges if the country’s government does not open the Strait of Hormuz – through which around 20 million daily barrels of oil and a large share of the world’s liquefied natural gas passed before the war – by 8:00 pm US Eastern time Tuesday.
“The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night,” Trump said.
This, after the president on Sunday told Iran to “open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell.”
Trump – who recently threatened to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages” – said Sunday that he is unconcerned about committing war crimes in Iran, telling reporters that “the time the Iranian people are most unhappy … is when those bombs stop.”
Pour stressed that Iran can’t trust Trump, who Iranian officials and others have accused of using nuclear negotiations as a cover to impose demands and buy time to prepare for more war.
Just hours before Trump announced his decision to bomb Iran in February, Omani Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi, the mediator of talks between the US and Iranian governments, said that a “peace deal is within our reach.”
Iran’s government was willing to make unprecedented concessions regarding its nuclear program up until the US and Israel began bombing the country on February 28. Every US administration since that of former President George W. Bush – including Trump’s – has concluded that Iran is not seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
The US and Israel also launched attacks on Iran in the summer of 2025 amid ongoing negotiations with Tehran.
A senior Iranian official speaking to Drop Site News Monday on condition of anonymity said that “it is our assessment that the Trump administration, owing to legal constraints within the United States concerning the prosecution of the war as well as the need to maintain control over financial markets, requires a short-term pause in the conflict.”
“Our assessment indicates that this proposal has been drafted solely on the basis of the mediators’ perception of the minimum demands of the parties for halting the war,” the official continued.
“Tehran does not consider a temporary ceasefire to be a logical course of action, inasmuch as the window for the United States’ exit from the conflict has already been delineated,” they added. “Should the requisite political will exist, the parties are in a position to establish a permanent ceasefire and thereafter concentrate their efforts on diplomacy.”
From Common Dreams.
