On Tuesday, President Donald Trump threatened to wipe out Iran in a Truth Social post. Less than twelve hours later, he announced a two-week ceasefire will begin, contingent on Iran no longer blocking the Strait of Hormuz.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” the president wrote in the morning. “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.” Several members of Congress described the post as threatening the genocide of the Iranian people. Pope Leo XIV called it “truly unacceptable,” pointing both to international law and the “many innocent people” who would be killed or harmed.
The message followed an Easter morning post where Trump told Iranian leadership to “open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell.” The president has repeatedly threatened to hit Iran’s power and water treatment plants in recent weeks, both in social media posts and conversations with the press.
Many experts say such actions would constitute war crimes, due to the immense impact they would necessarily have on Iran’s civilian population.
“Even in the limited cases that they qualify as military targets, a party still cannot attack power plants if this may cause disproportionate harm to civilians,” Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s senior director of research, advocacy, policy and campaigns, said in late March. “Given that such power plants are essential for meeting the basic needs and livelihoods of tens of millions of civilians, attacking them would be disproportionate and thus unlawful under international humanitarian law, and could amount to a war crime.”
“Trump’s threat to wipe out ‘an entire civilization’ is reprehensible,” Alabama U.S. Representative Terri Sewell wrote in a social media post criticizing Trump’s threat. “This increasingly erratic and unhinged behavior by the President of the United States demands immediate action by Congress.”
Sewell has been a consistent critic of the war with Iran. Shortly after the initial strikes by Israel and the U.S. in late February, she pointed to “the President’s obligations under the Constitution to work with Congress on military actions that put our troops in harm’s way and could drag our country into another prolonged war in the Middle East.”
On Tuesday, Sewell again called for Congressional oversight over Trump’s prosecution of the ongoing conflict.
“Republicans must bring the House back into session NOW and vote with Democrats to block Trump’s use of military force in Iran,” the congresswoman said. “It’s time for Republicans to stand up to this president before more American troops and innocent civilians are put in harm’s way.”
Global oil prices fell significantly after the ceasefire was announced on Tuesday afternoon. In a public statement corroborating Trump’s description of a ceasefire, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said that “safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be possible via co-ordination with Iran’s Armed Forces and with due consideration of technical limitations.”
Around 20 percent of global oil supply passes through the Strait of Hormuz, per the U.S. Energy Information Agency, and Iran has kept the Strait effectively closed since the war began, exacting hefty tolls from a handful of ships in exchange for safe passage.
Due to the volume of trade that passes through the Strait, its closure as a result of the ongoing conflict has made global energy prices skyrocket. The situation also looked likely to get much worse the longer the closure continued as countries continue to use up the oil that had already passed through the Strait before the U.S. and Israel struck Iran.
Senators Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville’s offices did not respond to APR’s requests for comments on Trump’s threat against Iran. Both have publicly supported the war and voted against war powers resolutions meant to check Trump’s ability to escalate or continue the conflict.
