Secretary-General @antonioguterres, Your Excellency, On 1 April 2026, during a White House address on “Operation Epic Fury,” President Donald J. Trump publicly declared that the United States had achieved or was “nearing completion” of its core military objectives against Iran, including the destruction of Iran’s nuclear capabilities, ballistic missile arsenal and production facilities, navy, and related infrastructure. Yet in the same statements he explicitly threatened to “hit [Iran] extremely hard over the next two to three weeks,” to “bring them back to the Stone Age, where they belong,” and to strike “each and every one of their electric generating plants … very hard and probably simultaneously.” These declarations are not protected political speech. They are direct, public evidence of "mens rea" for the commission of war crimes under customary international humanitarian law and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. They must be condemned immediately and without reservation. The following substantiates this assertion: 1- The speaker's own admissions that military objectives have already been achieved or are “on track … shortly” negate any claim of continuing military necessity. Further attacks would therefore violate the fundamental principle that force may be used only when required by a definite military advantage at the time of the attack (Additional Protocol I, Art. 52(2); customary IHL). 2- The explicit threat to “bomb Iran back to the Stone Age” and to destroy electric generating plants, objects indispensable to civilian survival, constitutes a prohibited act or threat of violence whose primary purpose is to spread terror among the civilian population (Additional Protocol I, Art. 51(2); Rome Statute Art. 8(2)(b)(i) and (ii)). 3- The statements demonstrate a "priori intent" to launch disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks, knowing that massive civilian harm would be clearly excessive in relation to any residual military advantage (Rome Statute Art. 8(2)(b)(iv)). 4- Under the doctrine of superior command responsibility, president Donald J. Trump and Secretary of War Peter Brian Hegseth would be personally liable for any war crimes that follow. Their own words remove any defense of ignorance or lawful necessity. These declarations will one day be Exhibit A in any future international or national criminal proceeding. The United Nations was founded precisely to prevent such threats to international peace and security and to uphold the rule of international humanitarian law. Silence or equivocation in the face of these public threats would undermine the credibility of the entire multilateral system. You are therefore called upon you, Mr. Secretary-General, and upon the authorities copied above, to: - Immediately and publicly condemn these threats as violations of the Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute; - Refer the matter without delay to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court for preliminary examination; - Convene an urgent meeting of the Security Council to address the imminent risk of further war crimes; - Direct the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the ICRC to issue formal legal assessments and monitoring reports; and - Take all other necessary measures under the UN Charter and international law to prevent the threatened crimes and to protect the civilian population of Iran. History will record whether the international community acted with the speed and moral clarity that these circumstances demand. The words spoken on 1 April 2026 are now part of the permanent record. They must not be allowed to become the prelude to atrocity. Cc: - @antonioguterres – UN Secretary-General - @UN – United Nations - @KarimKhanQC – ICC Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan KC - @UNHumanRights – Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (Volker Türk) - @ICRC – International Committee of the Red Cross - @UN_HRC – UN Human Rights Council