President Donald Trump announced on Twitter over the weekend that if Iran retaliated against the US for assassinating its top military general, Qassem Soleimani, the US would respond by attacking 52 Iranian cultural sites “VERY FAST AND VERY HARD.”
After initially backing down from his comments following swift backlash and allegations that he was advocating for a war crime, Trump doubled down while speaking to reporters on Air Force One.
“They’re allowed to kill our people. They’re allowed to torture and maim our people. They’re allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people,” he said. “And we’re not allowed to touch their cultural site? It doesn’t work that way.”
Targeting cultural sites violates international law and multiple treaties.
A 2017 UN resolution “condemns the unlawful destruction of cultural heritage, including the destruction of religious sites and artifacts.”
The UN also made it clear that carrying out such measures amounts to a war crime.
“The deliberate destruction of our common cultural heritage constitutes a war crime and represents an attack on humanity as a whole,” then UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s spokesperson said in 2015.
The president’s top advisers and cabinet officials, however, are bending over backwards to argue that he didn’t threaten to commit a war crime and is acting in accordance with international law, despite his tweets and public statements indicating the opposite.
During an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo beat around the bush when Tapper asked him if the US was really “preparing to hit non-military, cultural targets in Iran, which would obviously — possibly — result in civilian threats and
almost certainly violate a UN resolution that the US voted for in 2017?”
Pompeo replied that what Trump tweeted was “consistent” with the US’s position “all along.”
“We will be bold in protecting American interests,” he said, adding that they would do so in a way “that is consistent with the international rule of law and the American Constitution.”
Tapper pushed back and told Pompeo he was “saying two different things.”
“President Trump’s threat … centers of interest to the Iran culture would not be in accordance with international law, so which is it?” Tapper pressed.
“Jake, they’re not two different things,” Pompeo said. “The American people should know that we will not waver. We will be bold in protecting American interests … we’ve always done that, Jake, and President Trump’s tweet doesn’t deviate from that one iota.”
“So cultural centers are theoretically fair targets, in your view?” Tapper pressed.
“Jake, we’re going to do the things that are right and the things that are consistent with American law,” Pompeo said.
When asked about Trump’s comments during another appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Pompeo again argued that “Our responses are lawful … the president will take every action necessary to respond should Iran decide to escalate.”
