In declaring that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” President Donald Trump issued a genocidal threat against Iran.
The president posted his message on social media early Tuesday morning, saying that the world “will find out tonight” what happens if Iran fails to meet his 8 p.m. ET deadline for a ceasefire.
Now, the world waits to see if the president of the United States will follow through and commit war crimes by bombing civilian infrastructure across Iran, thrusting the U.S. into the role of international supervillain.
“Earlier we had threats that would amount to war crimes if committed, and now this morning we have a threat to commit what would plausibly be considered genocide,” said Brian Finucane, a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group and former human rights lawyer at the State Department.
As the economic crisis caused by Trump’s war of choice in Iran grew, Trump has made increasingly bombastic threats. On March 21, he promised to “obliterate their various POWER PLANTS,” if Iran did not open the Strait of Hormuz, where 20% of the world’s oil transits, in 48 hours. He then delayed this action for 10 days, citing “productive” conversations, something that Iran denied. Ten days later, Trump delayed his promised bombing campaign again, but, on April 1, vowed to “[blast] Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!!”
