Just hours before a self-imposed deadline for an agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, US President Donald Trump threatened on Tuesday to wipe out Iran’s “entire civilization” forever – remarks seen as a direct expression of genocidal intent.
Trump released his comments as the US launched a wave of attacks on Kharg Island, Iran’s key oil export center. The US and Israel also reportedly targeted bridges across Iran overnight as part of a wider attack that has killed thousands of people since the end of February.
“An entire civilization will die tonight, never to return,” Trump has written on his “Truth Social” platform. “I don’t want it to happen, but maybe it will. However, now that we have complete and total Regime Change, where different, smarter and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something wonderful revolutionary will happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World.”
Brian Finucane, senior advisor to the US Program at the International Crisis Group, he answered to Trump’s threat by telling about 18 US Code § 1091which prohibits US citizens from committing genocide WITHIN United States and abroad.
Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the US-based Center for International Policy, has written that “this meets the threshold for intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national group as defined in 18 US Code § 1091 which prohibits the crime of genocide”.
“If any Iranians are killed under this threat,” Williams added, “President Trump will be guilty of genocide, as will those who aid him.”
An expert, ex Human rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth noted that Trump’s genocidal threat is itself illegal.
“Trump is openly threatening collective punishment, targeting not the Iranian military but the Iranian people,” Roth told NBC News, referring to the Fourth Geneva Convention. “Attacking civilians is a war crime. So is making threats to terrorize the civilian population.”
“Soldiers must reject illegal orders. Members of Congress must call out blaming and removal.”
The US president gave Iran a deadline of 20:00 to reach a deal that fully reopens the Strait of Hormuz. Trump has threatened to order the destruction of Iranian bridges and energy infrastructure if there is no agreement within his arbitrary deadline.
Adil Haque, professor of law at Rutgers University, has written Tuesday that the international community must intervene immediately to prevent Trump from launching a catastrophic and criminal attack on a country of more than 90 million people.
“Soldiers must reject illegal orders,” Haque added. “Members of Congress must call for impeachment and removal. Every American who loves their country must speak up. Enough is enough.”
Iran’s negotiating position
As Trump escalated his threats to carry out war crimes in Iran unless his government reopens the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian officials on Monday rejected what they called an inadequate ceasefire proposal and insisted on a guarantee that the US and Israel would not only halt their attacks but also refrain from future aggression.
“We only accept an end to the war with the guarantee that we will not be attacked again,” Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of Iran’s diplomatic mission in Cairo. said Associated Press, confirming his government’s rejection of a 45-day ceasefire proposed by regional mediators led by Pakistan and including Egypt and Turkey.
Trump said on Monday that he said he could order strikes on all of Iran’s power plants and bridges if the country’s government does not open the Strait of Hormuz – through which about 20 million barrels a day oil and much of the world’s liquefied natural gas went through before the war—as of 8:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
“The whole country could be taken out overnight, and that night could be tomorrow night,” Trump said.
This, after the president on Sunday said Iran “open the fuckin’ strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll live in hell.”
Trump – who recently threatened to bomb Iran “back to the stone age” – said On Sunday that he is not concerned about Iran committing war crimes, telling reporters that “the time the Iranian people are most unhappy … is when those bombs stop.”
Pour stressed that Iran cannot trust Trump, who Iranian officials and others have accused of using the nuclear negotiations as a cover to impose demands and buy time to prepare for more war.
Just hours before Trump announced his decision to bomb Iran in February, Oman’s foreign minister, Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi, brokered talks between the US government and Iran. said that a “peace agreement is within our reach”.
Iran’s government was willing to make unprecedented concessions regarding its nuclear program until the US and Israel began bombing the country on February 28. Every US administration since that of former President George W. Bush – including Trump’s – has concluded that Iran is not looking to develop nuclear weapons.
The US and Israel also launched strikes on Iran in the summer of 2025 amid ongoing negotiations with Tehran.
A senior Iranian official spoke to Drop Site News on Monday on condition of anonymity said that “it is our assessment that The Trump administrationdue to legal restrictions within United States regarding the prosecution of the war, as well as the need to maintain control over the financial markets, requires a short-term pause in the conflict.”
“Our assessment shows that this proposal was drawn up only on the basis of the mediators’ perception of the parties’ minimum requirements for stopping the war,” continued the official.
“Tehran does not consider a temporary ceasefire a logical course of action, as long as the window for the United States to exit the conflict has already been determined,” they added. “If the necessary political will exists, the parties are able to establish a permanent ceasefire and then focus their efforts on diplomacy.”
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