President Trump has threatened several times in the last couple of weeks to blow up all of Iran’s power plants and bridges if the Iranian regime doesn’t open the Strait of Hormuz. He issued his initial 48-hour deadline on March 21 but extended it to April 6 to allow time for negotiation. Now he says that if a deal is not reached by 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time on April 7, the infrastructure will be destroyed.
Speaking in a Wall Street Journal interview earlier today about what would happen if the regime doesn’t meet the deadline and the bombing takes place, President Trump said, “that country will take 20 years to rebuild, if they’re lucky, if they have a country.” Presumably, the president thinks the regime’s members are the people who stand to lose from the threatened attacks. Pressed by the interviewer if he had any concerns about what that would do to the country’s 93 million people, the president said, “No, they want us to do it,” adding that the Iranian people are “living in hell.”
President Trump is correct on his point that ordinary Iranians are living in hell. But how did he determine that those same suffering people want all of their country’s power plants to be destroyed? That defies credulity. One has to hope that these threats only constitute a pressure campaign to get the regime to negotiate an end to the conflict and open the strait. The president will be responsible for creating one of the worst humanitarian disasters in history if he orders the bombing of such critical infrastructure.
The Wall Street Journal says that “Under international law, the military is allowed to strike civilian power plants and other key infrastructure only if it contributes to a military operation and civilian harm is minimized.” President Trump is probably exaggerating when he says the U.S. will bomb all power plants in Iran. But assuming he is serious, he will certainly violate international law because there is no plausible way to minimize harm to civilians with such an approach.
Today’s world is not one that is prepared to deal with the millions of refugees who would escape Iran. We all know what happened when millions of Syrians fled to Germany and other parts of Europe a decade ago during their country’s civil war. That influx triggered a backlash that led to the rise of far-right populist parties across Europe. Since then, pretty much every country on the continent has taken measures to seal its borders. Currently, America is in no mood to welcome anyone from anywhere, regardless of the reason for seeking shelter. It is the same with every country on the planet.
Fortunately for President Trump, there is an easier and far better way of achieving his goal of getting the Iranian regime to open the strait. Because its closure is affecting every single country in the world, he just needs to assemble a global coalition to deal with the issue. America doesn’t have to go it alone. The president’s problem however is that because he has alienated everyone with some of his past policies, he is having trouble finding people to join him in a mission that would otherwise be relatively straightforward.
There are reports that a number of countries are already working behind the scenes to help resolve the crisis. President Trump needs to be a little patient.