More than 100 US-based international law experts have signed an open letter warning that American and Israeli strikes on Iran may amount to war crimes, citing attacks on civilian infrastructure and inflammatory rhetoric from senior US officials, 24NewsHD TV reported on Friday.
According to the letter, published on the Just Security policy journal website, the experts said the conduct of US forces and statements by senior officials had raised “serious concerns” about possible violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law.
The signatories include scholars and legal specialists from institutions such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and the University of California, as well as former government legal advisers and military law experts.
The legal experts said reported strikes on schools, hospitals, water, and energy infrastructure in Iran were particularly alarming, warning that attacks on civilian facilities could breach the laws of armed conflict.
They also raised concerns over US President Donald Trump’s remarks that strikes on Iran could be carried out “just for fun,” as well as broader threats to target essential infrastructure.
The letter also questioned the legal basis for the war itself, arguing that the US-Israeli campaign against Iran may have violated the United Nations Charter, and expressed concern over the conduct of hostilities, threatening public statements by senior officials, and what it described as the weakening of civilian-protection safeguards within the US military command structure.
The experts further said the war was costing US taxpayers between $1 billion and $2 billion a day, while causing severe civilian, environmental, and economic harm across the region.