Donald Trump is facing renewed scrutiny over his conduct in the Iran conflict after threatening in recent days to hit bridges, power plants and other civilian sites, with international law scholars warning that both the rhetoric and any such attack could breach the laws of war. The concern centres on statements made by the U.S. president as the fight between the United States and Iran has intensified, and on whether those threats stray beyond military pressure into conduct prohibited under international humanitarian law.
The latest alarm was sharpened last week when more than 100 international law experts published a joint letter through Just Security expressing what they called 'profound concern' about serious violations of international law in the Iran war. The signatories pointed to four broad areas that they believe deserve urgent scrutiny, including the decision to enter the conflict, possible breaches of humanitarian law, inflammatory rhetoric from senior officials and the erosion of internal safeguards that are supposed to restrain unlawful force.
