‘Incitement to terrorism’: Iran envoy blasts Trump’s infrastructure threats
FM spox vows reprisal attacks on US facilities ‘with all might’
Iran’s ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations in New York said US President Donald Trump’s threats to bomb Iran’s bridges and power plants constitute direct incitement to terrorism.
Amir Saeed Iravani made the remark in a letter addressed to the United Nations secretary-general and the UN Security Council president after Trump threatened to strike bridges and power plants as well as other civilian infrastructure, including petrochemical plants, across Iran.
“Such statements constitute direct incitement to terrorism and provide clear evidence of intent to commit war crimes under international law,” Iravani wrote.
“The deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian objects, including the destruction of infrastructure essential to the survival of the civilian population such as power plants, energy facilities and other critical civilian infrastructure constitutes a war crime and represents a blatant act of State terrorism, intended to terrorize and inflict severe harm on the civilian population. Even terrorist groups like ISIS were ashamed of making such reckless, horrible public statements.”
Iran’s envoy called on the secretary-general of the United Nations, the Security Council and all member states of the United Nations to fulfil their legal and moral obligations by “unequivocally condemning these dangerous statements,” and “taking immediate, decisive and concrete measures to halt the ongoing criminal and barbaric acts of the United States and the Israeli regime, and to ensure that all those responsible are held fully accountable under international law.”
Iravani underlined that silence or inaction in the face of such egregious violations would gravely undermine the integrity of international law, erode the foundations of the Charter of the United Nations, normalize war crimes and atrocities, and embolden the aggressors, with consequences that would extend far beyond the region.
In an interview with Reuters, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei lambasted the hostile threats of the US president against Iran as merely indicative of a criminal mindset and said, “If such an attack occurs, we will respond with all our might, and our armed forces will target any similar infrastructure that belongs to the United States or has in any way contributed to the aggression against Iran.”
Stressing that the American people have realized that the ongoing war is not theirs, he added, “The people of the United States need to know that what their government is doing in West Asia against Iran is a great injustice, an unfair war, and an aggressive act."
Baqaei emphasized that, “Everyone in Iran and globally knows that this war is unjust. It is a war of choice by the US government that has been imposed not only on Iran, but also on the American people, the entire region, and the international community. Therefore, as we have shown, we will respond with all our might. Because this land is our homeland. This issue goes back to the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a country that prides itself on its civilization and knows how to defeat its enemies.”