Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei has condemned the US threats and airstrikes against Iran’s civilian infrastructure as clear war crimes, and warned that normalizing such “unprecedented violations” of the Geneva Conventions would erode the international legal order. In a post on his X account on Wednesday marking the 77th anniversary of the adoption of the four Geneva Conventions, Baqaei said that today, 12 August, marks the anniversary of the adoption of the four Geneva Conventions in 1949—the core international treaties that established the most essential rules of the law of armed conflict, namely ‘humanity’, ‘distinction’, ‘military necessity’, ‘proportionality’, and the prohibition of ‘unnecessary suffering’ in order to civilize humanity and humanize war. He pointed out that the architects of these four treaties could scarcely have imagined that, in 2026—seventy seven years after the adoption of these instruments —the United States, host nation of the United Nations and a permanent member of the Security Council, would repeatedly threaten to attack the infrastructure, bridges, and power plants of another country, and would in fact commit such crimes. Baqaei said that the international community, the States Parties to the Geneva Conventions, and Switzerland as the depositary of these instruments cannot remain indifferent to such unprecedented violations, which constitute clear war crimes. He stressed that Common Article 1 of the Geneva Conventions does not merely obligate States to respect the Conventions; it requires them to “ensure respect” for them as well. Baqaei said that silence in the face of explicit threats against civilian objects is not mere political passivity—it is the erosion of one of the most fundamental civilizational and legal achievements of the post-World War II era. Wherever the law falls silent before power, what collapses is not merely a bridge or a power plant, but humanity’s confidence in the possibility of the rule of law in international relations. If the threat to destroy civilian infrastructure becomes normalized in international affairs, no state can any longer feel secure about the inviolability of its hospitals, electricity grids, bridges, water facilities, or other vital arteries against external aggression. This is not merely a threat against one government; it is a regression of the entire legal order that humanity has built in its pursuit of civilization and the restraint of violence. Yet for us Iranians, the answer remains clear: No storm can shift a mountain from its place, and no number of trials can break those who stand firm on the path of resolve.
US ‘unprecedented violations’ of Geneva Conventions cannot be ignored: Iran
