{"id":138301,"date":"2026-04-19T17:02:48","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T17:02:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/is-trump-threatening-to-commit-a-war-crime\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T17:02:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T17:02:48","slug":"is-trump-threatening-to-commit-a-war-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/is-trump-threatening-to-commit-a-war-crime\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Trump threatening to commit a war crime?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>WASHINGTON DC, Apr 19 \u2013 Donald Trump\u2019s threat to blow up electricity plants and bridges in Iran could amount to a threat to commit potential war crimes, according to international treaties and conventions on the laws of war.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The deliberate destruction of energy infrastructure could have a devastating effect on civilian life \u2013 even if the plants are also argued to have a military or government purpose.<\/p>\n<p>Luis Moreno Ocampo, founding chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) \u2013 to which neither the US nor Iran are party \u2013 told me earlier this month when Trump made similar threats that bombing of Iranian power plants, as well as attacks by both Iran and Israel on energy infrastructure, would not amount to legitimate targets.<\/p>\n<p>Under the Rome Statute, established by the court, \u201cintentionally directing attacks at civilian objects\u2026 which are not military objectives\u201d is a war crime, Moreno Ocampo said.<\/p>\n<p>White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about this issue of potential war crimes and rejected the notion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course, this administration and the United States armed forces will always act within the confines of the law.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut with respect to achieving the full objectives of Operation Epic Fury, President Trump is going to move forward unabated. And he expects the Iranian regime to make a deal with the administration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trump himself said in newspaper interview earlier this year he didn\u2019t \u201cneed\u201d international law and that he was limited only by his own morality. \u201cMy own mind,\u201d he said, was \u201cthe only thing that can stop me\u201d.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON DC, Apr 19 \u2013 Donald Trump\u2019s threat to blow up electricity plants and bridges in Iran could amount to a threat to commit potential war crimes, according to international treaties and conventions on the laws of war. The deliberate destruction of energy infrastructure could have a devastating effect on civilian life \u2013 even if [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}