Donald Trump Threatened Iran With War Crimes. Mike Pompeo Doesn’t See a Problem With That.

“We will be bold in protecting American interests, and we will do so in a way that is consistent with the rule of law.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks on CNN's "State of the Union" on January 5, 2020./CNN

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

President Donald Trump sent a string of tweets on Saturday night threatening further military action against Iran—including strikes on key cultural sites, which could be considered a war crime under international law—in response to Iran’s promised retaliation for the killing of its most powerful military official last week. On Sunday, in appearances on the morning political shows, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo signaled his support for that strategy.

Trump tweeted that his administration had identified 52 Iranian sites—a number, he explained, that represents the 52 Americans taken hostage in the American embassy in Tehran in 1979—to “HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD” if Iran strikes US assets as retribution against a US airstrike that killed Maj. General Qassim Suleimani, Iran’s top commander. Some of the sites, Trump wrote, are “at the very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture.” Both the Department of Defense’s Law of War Manual and the internationally agreed-upon Geneva Conventions prohibit attacks on recognized historic monuments, works of art, or places of worship known as sites of cultural or spiritual heritage.

When asked about the tweets on CNN’s State of the Union, Pompeo backed the president. “The American people should know that we will not waver,” he said. “We will be bold in protecting American interests, and we will do so in a way that is consistent with the rule of law.” When host Jake Tapper asked about the potential violation of international law, Pompeo did not express concern over the chosen cultural site targets.

The Trump administration has maintained that killing Suleimani had been a necessary step to prevent Iran from carrying out an “imminent” attack that would have left hundreds dead. On Saturday, the New York Times reported that some administration officials had been concerned that the intelligence about that planned attack had been thin. According to the Times, military officials gave Trump a number of options of how to proceed in response to that threat—including killing Suleimani—and were reportedly shocked when he chose that option, which they deemed extreme. Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence reportedly had been among the most hawkish in their encouragement of the strike.

In an appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation later Sunday morning, however, Pompeo was evasive when host Margaret Brennan asked if the threat had been removed after the strike against Suleimani. “There are constant threats,” Pompeo said. “We are focused on delivering a strategy.”

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate