Article 52 of the Geneva Convention: Civilian objects shall not be the object of attack or of reprisals. Civilian objects are all objects which are not military objectives.
Attacks shall be limited strictly to military objectives. In so far as objects are concerned, military objectives are limited to those objects which by their nature, location, purpose or use make an effective contribution to military action and whose total or partial destruction, capture or neutralization, in the circumstances ruling at the time, offers a definite military advantage.
In case of doubt whether an object which is normally dedicated to civilian purposes, such as a place of worship, a house or other dwelling or a school, is being used to make an effective contribution to military action, it shall be presumed not to be so used.
There are many names for Donald Trump such as Sex Pest, Pedophile, Fascist and Simpleton but we may be hours away from adding War Criminal to the long list as Lawyers queue up to tell him that if he he goes through with the threat to bomb power plants, Bridges and desalinisation plants, then he will be committing War Crimes.
Just today a spokesman for the UN Secretary General warned that attacking such infrastructure is banned under international law and several United Nations officials and scholars in military law have said the same.
More than 100 US experts in international law from universities including Harvard, Yale, Stanford and the University of California said the conduct of US forces and statements by senior US officials 'raise serious concerns about violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, including potential war crimes' and the European Council pointed out that the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian Generals for attacks on Ukraine’s power infrastructure and said pointedly that: 'This applies to Russia’s war in Ukraine and it applies everywhere'.
It seems that all legal minds are of the idea that US attacks on the life-supporting infrastructure for 93 million Iranians would constitute a war crime and the Democrats published a video message recently telling US service members that: 'You can refuse illegal orders, you must refuse illegal orders'.
Erika Guevara Rosas, Amnesty International’s senior director of research, advocacy, policy and campaigns, said: 'Intentionally attacking civilian infrastructure such as power plants is generally prohibited. 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' and the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric, said: 'War on essential infrastructure is war on civilians. Deliberate attacks on essential services and civilian infrastructure can amount to war crimes.'
Even Michael Schmitt, a professor at the US Naval War College and an international law professor at the University of Reading stated clearly that: 'This strikes me as clearly a threat of unlawful action' so Trump could soon be joining his buddy Benjamin Netanyahu on the list of people the ICC would like to have a word with.