Iran's Foreign Ministry has accused the United States of committing war crimes in Iran and insisted that Washington must be held accountable for airstrikes on residential neighborhoods and civilian infrastructure. Spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei made the remarks at a press briefing on Monday, pointing to a recent American strike on the island of Qeshm that killed three people from one family, including a two-year-old child.
The attack hit a residential neighborhood in Qeshm, in Iran's Hormozgan Province, last week and leveled a family home. Iranian officials said the district was a densely populated working-class area, with footage from the scene appearing to support that claim. US Central Command, however, said it had targeted positions of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in retaliation for the force firing multiple ballistic missiles at US troops across the region earlier that week.
Baghaei was commenting in particular on a New York Times report that the neighborhood was hit by a 2,000-pound Mark 84 bomb, one of the largest conventional weapons in the US arsenal. The report was based on analysis of videos, photographs and satellite imagery.
He said the United States had repeatedly attacked Iranian civilians and non-military sites with heavy weapons. «Unfortunately, this has become the American way of warfare,» he said. «What the US has done in Qeshm, Minab, Lamerd, and elsewhere constitutes war crimes. Every state is not only entitled but obligated to hold those responsible accountable.»
The spokesman also recalled a strike during the initial stage of the conflict in February that destroyed the Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school in Minab, southern Iran, killing more than 170 people, most of them children. Washington has continued to deny responsibility for that attack. Baghaei has previously said more than 600 schools and educational facilities were targeted across Iran in the conflict's first month, including a school and sports hall in Lamerd where at least 21 people were killed.
«Throughout these five months, such attacks have continued,» Baghaei said. He cited repeated strikes on facilities used exclusively for civilian purposes as evidence of Washington's «determination to dismantle the norms and principles of international law.» The spokesman said the international community and every individual state must recognize their responsibility in the face of these serious violations. «We will use every available legal mechanism at the international level to ensure that the perpetrators and those responsible for these crimes are brought to justice,» he said.
Last week's strikes followed the collapse of a Pakistan-brokered interim agreement between Iran and the United States that was reached in mid-June. The two sides have accused each other of violating its terms. Last Monday, US President Donald Trump said «very friendly negotiations» with Tehran were under way again, but within days Washington resumed strikes and Trump promised to hit Iran «very hard.»
CBS News reported that the United States and Israel had been preparing a major bombing campaign against Iran's energy infrastructure over the weekend. In a social media post on Saturday, however, Trump said he had agreed to requests from Tehran and several Middle Eastern countries to delay the attack because the «parameters» of a deal had been reached. Speaking aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump said talks would begin on Monday.
Baghaei insisted, however, that Tehran is not currently holding negotiations with the US. He said the only ongoing talks are with Oman on establishing a temporary safe shipping lane through the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway carrying around 20% of global oil and LNG trade that has been de facto closed by the conflict.