Dame Emily Thornberry, who chairs the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said the US President’s threats of bombing Iran’s bridges and power plants would “be unlawful under the Geneva Convention and the law applies to everyone”
Donald Trump tonight face accusations he was “immoral” over his threats to bomb Iranian infrastructure.
The US President today unleashed a deranged foul-mouthed tirade on Iran, blasting: “Open the f***ing Strait, you crazy b*****ds – or you’ll be living in hell.” He threatened to bomb the regime into oblivion in an expletive-laden Easter Sunday post online – just hours after a downed pilot was rescued from behind enemy lines.
Trump said he would rain explosives down on Iran’s power plants and crucial bridges on Tuesday if the Strait of Hormuz remained closed. His message put the world on edge over fears that the war in the Middle East would escalate – sparking a global energy crisis and threatening to change the region’s landscape forever.
READ MORE: Donald Trump vows to bomb Iran’s power plants in foul-mouthed rant – ‘Open the Strait’READ MORE: Inside ‘most daring rescue in US history’ as dawn raid saves fighter pilot in Iran
Bizarrely ending his message with the phrase “praise be to Allah”, Trump said: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!!” In an interview with Fox News, President Trump said he believed he could reach a deal with Iran by today [MON]
But he warned that if Iran failed to negotiate, he was “considering blowing everything up” and taking control of its oil. Under the Geneva Convention, striking power plants and bridges used primarily by civilians is off-limits because they are not considered military targets.
But US officials are already beginning to argue that hitting them would not be a war crime because they are also crucial to the missile and nuclear programs. Dame Emily Thornberry, who chairs the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, told The Mirror: “Donald Trump has said that the only thing that constrains him is his own morality and that international law doesn’t apply to him.
“Clearly he does not think it is immoral to attack civilian infrastructure that is necessary for life. Not only is he wrong about that, it is immoral, but it would also be unlawful under the Geneva Convention and the law applies to everyone.” The President’s threat comes just days after US-Israeli air strikes destroyed Iran’s tallest bridge, killing eight people.
The B1 bridge, linking Iran’s capital with the western city of Karaj, was targeted in two waves of strikes after Trump said he would bomb Tehran ‘back to the Stone Age’. The second attack on the 136-metre structure took place while rescue forces were at the scene helping at least 95 injured people, Iranian state media claimed.
Iran has effectively shut tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz after the US and Israel began their strikes on February 28 – throttling 20 per cent of the world’s oil supply. But yesterday Trump – who earned the moniker the “TACO Trade” which stands for “Trump Always Chickens Out” – warned that Iran’s power plants would be bombed next if the vital global oil route was not reopened.
He has repeatedly threatened to send Iran back to the “stone age” as the war entered its second month. Trump warned the regime they had just 48 hours to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He said: “Time is running out — 48 hours before all Hell will reign (sic) down on them.”
Iran’s central military command rejected the ultimatum, with General Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi saying Trump’s threat was a “helpless, nervous, unbalanced and stupid action”. Echoing Trump’s language, he warned “the gates of hell will open for you”. A regime spokesman told Iranian media: “Do not forget that if aggression expands, the entire region will turn into a hell for you. The illusion of defeating the Islamic Republic of Iran has turned into a swamp in which you will sink.”
The ongoing conflict threatens to spark an energy crisis across the globe, with experts warning the fall-out could be “as heavy as we recently experienced during the COVID pandemic or at the start of the Ukraine war.” And the war risks completely changing the landscape of the Middle East, with countries launching rocket attacks on each other.
Bahrain’s Gulf Petrochemical Industries Company said an Iranian drone attack caused fires at several of its operational units Trump’s latest post came just hours after he revealed a brave band of US special ops troops executed a daring dawn raid to rescue a downed pilot who survived for 24 hours in a mountain crevice.
The missing airman – injured after ejecting from his F-15E Strike Eagle jet on Friday – spent nearly two days armed only with a handgun. But he evaded capture by hiking up a 7,000-foot ridgeline and hiding in the “treacherous mountains,” sources claimed.
Hundreds of special forces troops, dozens of US warplanes, helicopters, and intelligence assets were deployed in the mission to save the crew member. They were armed with “the most lethal weapons in the World,” said Donald Trump in a post on TruthSocial.
The president described it as “one of the most daring search and rescue operations in US history”. A team from the legendary Navy SEAL Team 6 commandos – the same unit which killed Osama Bin Laden in 2011 – is believed to have executed the operation.
It was described as a “life-or-death race” to rescue the crewman as Iranian fighters closed in. But the elite special operations troops were forced to blow up their own planes as they extracted the stricken crew member. In a triumphant post online, Trump wrote: “WE GOT HIM!” But Iran claimed to have “completely foiled” the operation.
Ebrahim Zolfaghari, the spokesman for the military’s central command, Khatam al-Anbiya, said “two C-130 military transport planes and two Black Hawk helicopters were destroyed” during the operation. The rescue was hailed as an “extraordinary military feat” – but Trump was warned it did not help end the war with Iran.
The UK’s first national security adviser, Lord Ricketts, told Times Radio the US president may have avoided the “humiliation” of seeing an airman paraded on Iranian TV as a hostage. However “it doesn’t change the dilemma for him of what he does about this war, which four weeks in is not achieving any of the objectives he set”, Ricketts said. “Does he go further, or does he begin to wind down?
“In a way, I think it will have given Trump a false sense of invulnerability of the Americans … and for the Iranians, I think it will show them that they can keep going.” The rescue mission was carried out as locals rounded on the airman, after a sick £50,000 bounty was placed on his head.
But the missing crew member, who Trump identified as a highly-respected Colonel, evaded capture while Reaper drones overhead protected him from danger. Had he been caught, it is likely he would have been taken hostage and paraded on TV as part of a propaganda strategy.
The CIA is said to have used “subterfuge” and “distraction” tactics as part of the complex operation after making contact via a “secure communication device”. A senior US military official described the mission as “one of the most challenging and complex in the history of US special operations,” NYT quoted.
Air support unleashed heavy fire on Iranian convoys as operatives moved to extract the stricken soldier who was equipped with a beacon and a secure communication device for coordinating with rescuers, one official said. Israel assisted by launching a huge blitz of more than 120 targets, effectively laying down a vast carpet of covering fire.
American troops did the same, dropping bombs and opening fire on Iranian military convoys. It is understood five Iranians died in the operation. A series of Special Forces teams on HH-60W Jolly Green II helicopters flew to the confirmed target location.
They landed briefly and confirmed the WSO’s identity, a process that likely included at least one question based on information in his Isolated Personnel Report (ISOPREP) that only he would know the answer to.
But as they made their escape, two transport planes taking part in the op got stuck in sand at a remote air base in Iran. War chiefs were forced to fly in three new planes to be able to extract all the US military personnel and the airmen. The rescue mission’s success was partly thanks to a “deception campaign” launched by the CIA inside Iran.