Iran: US and Israel guilty of gravest war crimes since 1949

On the 77th anniversary of the adoption of the Four Geneva Conventions, Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has issued a statement denouncing the United States and the Zionist regime for committing some of the most severe violations of international humanitarian law in modern history through their ongoing military aggression against the Islamic Republic.

The statement, released on Thursday, recalls that on August 12, 1949, the four Geneva Conventions established binding principles for armed conflict, including the distinction between military and civilian targets, proportionality, military necessity, and the prohibition of unnecessary suffering.

Common Article 1 of the conventions obliges all states parties not only to respect these rules “in all circumstances” but also to ensure their respect by others. These principles now form an integral part of customary international humanitarian law binding on every nation.

Yet the world continues to witness unprecedented breaches. The Zionist regime, the ministry declared, remains the single greatest violator of international humanitarian law. Over the past eight decades it has perpetrated the most serious international crimes -- war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity -- in occupied Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and across West Asia.

The statement identifies the Zionist regime’s aggressive operations against Iran in 2025 and 2026, carried out with the full complicity and participation of the United States, as among the gravest violations of humanitarian law since the conventions were adopted.

“The war crimes committed by the terrorist US army and the genocidal Zionist regime during their military aggression against Iran over the past year and a half have pushed the boundaries of savagery and barbarity,” the ministry said.

It cited specific atrocities: the massacre of students and teachers in Minab with Tomahawk missiles; the attack on the Lamerd stadium with cluster munitions on February 28, 2026; and the bombing of residential homes in Qeshm with one-ton bombs on July 30, 2026. These, it stressed, represent only a fraction of the thousands of war crimes inflicted on the Iranian people.

The ministry pointed to the open and systematic contempt shown by the US ruling establishment for the fundamental rules of international humanitarian law. Explicit statements by high-ranking American officials -- including the president, the secretary of war, and the secretary of state -- together with a repeated pattern of strikes on civilians and civilian infrastructure, demonstrate a clear intent to commit grave, severe, and organized violations of the laws of armed conflict.

Attacks by the United States and the Zionist regime on hospitals, universities, schools, residential areas, bridges, airports, and fire stations, along with the deliberate killing of civilians, women, and children in places such as Minab, Lamerd, and Qeshm, fall squarely under the grave breaches listed in Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. These include willful killing, the infliction of great suffering, and the extensive destruction of property. Both the material and mental elements of these crimes have been fully established.

Repeated admissions by US officials of a policy of “no quarter, no mercy,” open threats to strike Iranian infrastructure, bridges, and power plants, and rhetoric about “returning Iran to the Stone Age” or “completely destroying Iranian civilization,” combined with the systematic targeting of civilian objects, provide irrefutable evidence of premeditated intent and a deliberate pattern of grave breaches under Article 147.

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The systematic destruction has disrupted commercial activities, maritime transportation, emergency response services, and daily livelihoods.

Once attribution, causation, and the other legal elements are confirmed in each case, criminal responsibility attaches to the perpetrators and those who ordered the acts under Article 146 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which requires states parties to search for and prosecute those responsible for such violations.

The continued commission of these serious breaches by the United States and the Zionist regime, coupled with the inaction of the United Nations, the states parties to the Geneva Conventions, and Switzerland as depositary, has normalized violations of humanitarian law and fostered a culture of impunity for war crimes. This trend, the ministry warned, is not merely a threat to one nation but a catastrophic regression for the entire legal order that humanity constructed to civilize conflict and restrain violence.

The international community, the states parties to the Geneva Conventions, and Switzerland cannot remain indifferent to such unprecedented violations that constitute clear war crimes. Accountability must be pursued without delay.

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