The Crime of Aggression: Israel, Trump, and the Orchestration of War Crimes Against Iran

 

The world is standing on the precipice of catastrophe—and the architects of this moment are acting with brazen impunity. What Israel is doing to Iran right now, with the direct assistance and approval of current U.S. President Donald J. Trump, amounts not merely to an international crisis, but to a wholesale violation of international law, including the commission of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression.

A Genocidal Campaign Masquerading as Security

Over the past week, Israeli aerial campaigns—openly coordinated with U.S. intelligence and likely launched with material American support—have targeted Iranian cities, striking military installations and non-military infrastructure alike. Civilian neighborhoods in Tehran and Isfahan, power stations, communication networks, and water purification facilities have been leveled in what increasingly appears to be a strategy of paralytic siege—not military containment.

This is not a defensive maneuver. This is not a proportionate response. It is a state-sanctioned campaign of collective punishment—one that bears every hallmark of a modern war crime under the Geneva Conventions.

President Trump’s Role: From Enabler to Executor

President Trump is not a bystander. He is not a mediator. He is a co-combatant. His administration has given open political cover and strategic support to Israel's war machine. U.S. logistical coordination and satellite intelligence have enabled Israeli targeting decisions. American refueling aircraft have supported Israeli strike groups in the air. Trump’s own words, dripping with belligerence, have signaled a green light for escalation.

This is the crime of aggression, as defined by Article 8 bis of the Rome Statute: "the planning, preparation, initiation or execution... of an act of aggression which, by its character, gravity and scale, constitutes a manifest violation of the Charter of the United Nations."

When a nuclear power assists another in launching an undeclared war against a sovereign state, the world must call that act by its name: imperial aggression.

Crimes Against Humanity Unfolding in Real Time

The systematic targeting of civilian populations—whether directly or through infrastructure critical to survival—violates Article 7 of the Rome Statute, which defines crimes against humanity as “a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population.”

Reports now confirm mass casualties among Iranian civilians, including children. Hospitals are overrun. Communications are disabled. Cultural heritage sites—shrines, libraries, and Sufi lodges—have been obliterated. This is not collateral damage; it is cultural erasure.

President Trump’s approval of these operations implicates the United States in criminal complicity. These are not rogue acts. They are official policy.

The Silence of Western Institutions

International institutions remain paralyzed—trapped between geopolitical cowardice and moral failure. The UN Security Council is deadlocked. The ICC is compromised by decades of selective prosecution. The Western press parrots Tel Aviv’s talking points while censoring images of dead Iranian civilians.

And meanwhile, the U.S. commander-in-chief smiles at podiums and praises Israeli “resolve.”

This is not diplomacy. It is murder by consensus.

What Must Be Done

If international law is to retain any legitimacy, immediate actions must be taken:

• The United Nations General Assembly must convene an Emergency Special Session under the Uniting for Peace resolution to condemn the joint Israeli-American aggression.
• Independent journalists and whistleblowers must document and preserve evidence of these attacks for future war crimes prosecutions.
• The International Criminal Court must open an investigation into President Trump, Prime Minister Netanyahu, and senior military planners in both countries for crimes of aggression and crimes against humanity.
• Civil society around the world must rise in protest to declare: Not in our name.

This war is not about defense. It is about domination. It is about erasure. And unless the world stands up now, we may soon witness the wholesale destruction of a people, a culture, and a civilization—sanctioned at the highest levels of Western power.

History will not be kind to those who were silent.