- President Donald Trump has told Iran that “a whole civilization will die tonight” unless Tehran agrees to a ceasefire deal and opens the Strait of Hormuz to maritime traffic by 8 pm ET.
- Trump stated he did not “want that to happen” but conceded it “probably will,” while also speculating that “maybe something revolutionarily wonderful” could occur due to “Complete and Total Regime Change” in Iran.
- This latest threat, posted on Truth Social, represents a significant escalation in rhetoric following weeks of explicit threats to commit war crimes by attacking Iranian civilian infrastructure, including power and desalinization plants.
- Striking such targets would almost certainly violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits targeting civilian infrastructure necessary for a population’s survival, and American criminal law on war crimes.
- Trump’s assertion that Iranian “civilization will die” could cross a rhetorical line from threats of war crimes to threats of genocide, as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
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