Targeting cultural sites a ‘WAR CRIME’, Zarif reacts to Trump’s threats

“Having committed grave breaches of int'l law in Friday's cowardly assassinations, @realdonaldtrump threatens to commit again new breaches of JUS COGENS,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote in a tweet on Sunday.

His tweet was in reaction to Donald Trump’s Saturday tweets in which the US president threatened to target 52 Iranian cultural sites in case Iran carried out its promised revenge over the US assassination of Lt. Gen. Qasem Soleimani.

“Targeting cultural sites is a WAR CRIME; Whether kicking or screaming, end of US malign presence in West Asia has begun,” Zarif added.

In another tweet, the Iranian diplomat wrote “Those masquerading as diplomats and those who shamelessly sat to identify Iranian cultural & civilian targets should not even bother to open a law dictionary. Jus cogens refers to peremptory norms of international law, i.e. international red lines. That is, a big(ly) "no no".”

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