USA

Trump’s Iran posts sound like ‘prelude to becoming one of the greatest war criminals in history’

Former Secretary of State John Kerry decried Friday that President Trump’s threatening posts about Iran appear to be “the beginnings of becoming one of the greatest war criminals in history.”

Kerry told MS NOW’s Jen Psaki in the “Briefing” that the president’s Truth Social posts — an expletive-laden post on Sunday and a threat on Tuesday that Iran’s “entire civilization is going to die” — left him “as shocked as I am by anything I’ve seen or read by this administration in the first administration and now in the second administration.”

“We are, you know, the place that worked hard to save Europe or to save Europe from fascism and many of the other contributions that we make around the world,” he continued. “And you come forward and not only use language like that, but you say that an entire civilization is going to die. That strikes me as the beginning of being one of the greatest war criminals in history.”

The former secretary added: “When you kill a civilization, you do something completely contrary to all international norms, standards, values, hopes and aspirations.” Kerry later said, referring to the time he protested the Vietnam War after serving as a lieutenant in the US Navy: “When life and death are involved and war is involved… you really have to tell the truth.”

Kerry rejected the Trump administration’s claim that there is an “imminent nuclear threat” from Iran.

“There was no imminent threat. Even the administration told us for months that they had canceled the entire program,” he said, referring to the US-Israeli attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities in June.

Trump resumed his threats against Iran later in the week ahead of talks in Pakistan between Iranian officials and a US delegation led by Vice President Vance. The President said on Friday: New York Post was ready to continue strikes if talks between the two countries were not successful.

“We’ll know in about 24 hours,” he told the outlet. “We’ll find out soon. Our reset continues. We’re filling the ships with the best munitions, the best weapons ever made, even better than anything we’ve ever built before, and we’ve blown them up.”

“If we can’t reach an agreement, we will use them, and we will use them very effectively,” he later told the Post.

Trump’s “entire civilization” threat comes with a deadline of 8 p.m. EDT on Tuesday for Iran to submit a peace deal and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. An agreement was reached with a few hours left to initiate a two-week ceasefire and reopen the strait.

Iran closed the strait the next day, citing Israel’s heavy attacks on Lebanon. Iranian officials and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the ceasefire extends to Lebanon; It’s a point disputed by Trump administration officials and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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