More than 100 international law scholars say a US-Israeli war could violate the UN Charter, with the head of the Doomsday Clock calling the conflict “foolish”.
More than 100 US-based international law experts have warned that US attacks on Iran could amount to war crimes, citing violations of the UN Charter, attacks on civilian infrastructure, and threatening statements from senior officials.
In an open letter published on Thursday by the policy journal Just Security, scholars from Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and other institutions said that the unprovoked campaign by the United States and Israel against Iran that began at the end of February is. “a clear violation of the Charter of the United Nations.”
They also said that the behavior of the American forces and the statements of officials “raising serious concerns about violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, including potential war crimes.”
The experts highlighted President Donald Trump’s remarks last month that the United States might attack Iran “Just for fun.” They also cited Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s statement of March 2 that the United States was not at war with it “Stupid rules of engagement,” and his declaration of “no quarter, no mercy for our enemies” – words which, under international law, may constitute war crimes.
The letter expressed concern over the February 28 strike at the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ school in Minab, which killed at least 175 people, mostly children. The US Defense Ministry, the Pentagon, has reportedly decided that US forces carried out the strike based on outdated intelligence, but they have not yet apologized.
On the same day, an American missile struck a school and a theater in the town of Lamerd, killing at least 21 people. The New York Times reported that the weapon used was an untested Precision Strike Missile, which disperses small tungsten pellets.
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said more than 600 schools and educational facilities have been targeted, calling Minab’s killing part of “A systematic and brutal system of illegal warfare.” Iran has accused the US and Israel of committing genocide.
Separately, John Mecklin, editor-in-chief of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which sets the Doomsday Clock, described the war as “Absolutely stupid,” warn that “accidents, mistakes, crazy things” occur in a war and a nuclear accident “cannot be separated” until the fighting stops.
The legal experts and Mecklin called for a return to diplomacy while noting that Trump’s withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal has made negotiating agreements very difficult.
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