进步民主党代表亚历山大·奥卡西奥-科尔特斯和伊尔汉·奥马尔在周六的一系列推文中指控唐纳德·特朗普总统威胁对伊朗犯下“战争罪”。
特朗普通过推特警告伊朗，美国已经编制了一份伊朗52个网站的清单，如果这个波斯湾国家选择报复到周五早些时候，美国将发动军事打击杀害卡西姆·索莱马尼。这位伊朗将军是伊朗最高领导人之一，指挥着该国精锐的圣城部队，并与整个中东地区伊朗支持的团体进行协调。索莱马尼被伊朗人普遍认为是受欢迎的，他在抵达伊拉克后，当他的汽车从巴格达机场驶出时，在美国的一次有针对性的空袭中丧生。
“让这成为一个警告，如果伊朗袭击任何美国人或美国资产，我们已经瞄准了52个伊朗网站，”总统在推特上说。他补充说:“一些在非常高的水平上&对伊朗很重要&伊朗文化，那些目标，以及伊朗本身，将会受到非常快和非常严重的打击。”。
奥马尔和奥卡西奥-科尔特斯很快辩称，根据国际法，威胁文化遗址将构成“战争罪”。
“这是战争罪，”来自纽约的奥卡西奥-科尔特斯在推特上写道，分享了总统的警告。“威胁以无辜的家庭、妇女和儿童为目标并杀害他们——这就是你通过以文化遗址为目标所做的——并不意味着你是一个‘硬汉’”，她继续说道。“这不会让你变得‘有策略’它让你变成一个怪物。"
“美国总统威胁要在推特上犯下战争罪，”明尼苏达州代表奥马尔写道。“上帝保佑我们所有人！”
众议院外交事务委员会成员奥马尔在随后的帖子中称，国会应该重新行使其对战争权力的控制权，以制衡总统。
“这是对我们国家的重大考验，”她写道。“我们会允许数十年的行政过度扩张和军国主义继续下去吗？还是国会会介入并履行我们的宪法职责来阻止战争？全世界都在关注着，”
奥马尔和其他著名的进步人士，如佛蒙特州的民主党总统候选人参议员伯尼·桑德斯，援引宪法，长期以来一直呼吁国会阻止行政部门在没有国会授权的情况下实施军事打击和战争行为。桑德斯在推特上宣布，他和民主党众议员罗康娜打算引入立法，以防止总统加剧与伊朗的紧张关系，并遏制战争的可能性。
桑德斯上周五在推特上写道:“我正与康纳议员一起提出一项法案，阻止唐纳德·特朗普非法带我们去对抗伊朗。”。“必须在灾难性的新中东冲突中战斗和死亡的是工人阶级的孩子，而不是亿万富翁的孩子。”
卡纳周五告诉MSNBC，该法案将“切断针对伊朗或伊朗官员的进攻行动的任何资金”
新闻周刊已经向白宫寻求评论。
7月15日，美国众议员伊尔汉·奥马尔(明尼苏达州民主党)和亚历山大·奥卡西奥-科尔特斯(纽约州民主党)在华盛顿特区举行的记者招待会上发表讲话
比阿特丽斯·曼尼斯是一名伊朗裔美国人，他是总部设在荷兰的催化剂咨询公司的创始人新闻周刊特朗普攻击联合国教科文组织承认的文化遗产将是战争罪。她指出，伊朗和美国都是联合国教科文组织1954年《关于发生武装冲突时保护文化遗产的海牙公约》的签署国，这意味着这些遗址“在冲突期间任何情况下都不应成为攻击目标”
曼尼斯指出，特朗普的前驻联合国妮基·黑利大使“称伊斯兰国破坏文化遗产是违反联合国教科文组织条约本身的罪行，并将其列为当时伊斯兰国的阿拉伯首字母缩写Daesh的诸多错误之一。”
伊朗外交部长贾瓦德扎里夫也将特朗普的警告描述为威胁战争罪，同时将其与伊斯兰国相提并论。
扎里夫在推特上写道:“这提醒了那些幻想以我们的文化遗产为目标模仿伊斯兰国战争罪行的人:在数千年的历史中，野蛮人来了，蹂躏了我们的城市，夷平了我们的纪念碑，烧毁了我们的图书馆。”。“他们现在在哪里？我们还在这里，站得很高，”他补充道。
贝鲁特美国大学政治研究和管理教授希拉·卡珊告诉记者新闻周刊伊朗对美国的回应可能会谨慎
“伊朗人及其代理人的选择非常有限。他们知道美国会直接回应并袭击伊朗人，”哈山说。"伊朗人会咬紧牙关。"
然而，他指出，尽管最近发生了国内抗议，但对苏莱曼尼的袭击使伊朗人团结起来反对美国。
“伊朗是一个民族主义国家。许多伊朗人是喜欢还是不喜欢这个政权并不重要，索莱曼尼的被杀引发了巨大的愤怒和悲伤。"国内分歧是一回事，但羞辱外国干预是另一回事."
ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ, ILHAN OMAR ACCUSE TRUMP OF THREATENING TO COMMIT 'WAR CRIMES' AGAINST IRAN
Progressive Democratic Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar accused President Donald Trump of threatening to commit "war crimes" against Iran in a series of Saturday tweets.
Trump warned Iran via Twitter that the U.S. had compiled a list of 52 sites in Iran that it would strike militarily if the Persian Gulf nation chose to retaliate to the early Friday killing of Qassem Soleimani. The Iranian general was one of Iran's top leaders, commanding the country's elite Quds Force and coordinating with Iran-backed groups throughout the Middle East. Viewed as widely popular among Iranians, Soleimani was killed in a targeted U.S. airstrike while his vehicle drove from Baghdad's airport after he arrived in Iraq.
"Let this serve as a WARNING that if Iran strikes any Americans, or American assets, we have targeted 52 Iranian sites," the president tweeted. "Some at a very high level & important to Iran & the Iranian culture, and those targets, and Iran itself, WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD," he added.
Omar and Ocasio-Cortez were quick to argue that threatening cultural sites would constitute a "war crime" under international law.
"This is a war crime," Ocasio-Cortez, who hails from New York, wrote in a Twitter post, sharing the president's warning. "Threatening to target and kill innocent families, women and children - which is what you're doing by targeting cultural sites - does not make you a 'tough guy,'" she continued. "It does not make you 'strategic.' It makes you a monster."
"The President of the United States is threatening to commit war crimes on Twitter," Omar, who represents Minnesota, wrote. "God help us all!"
In a follow-up post, Omar, who sits on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, argued that Congress should re-assert its control over war powers to check the president.
"This is a major test for our country," she wrote. "Will we allow decades of executive overreach and militarism to continue? Or will Congress step in and perform our Constitutional role to stop a war? The world is watching."
Omar and other prominent progressives, such as Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, have long called for Congress to block the Executive Branch from carrying out military strikes and acts of war without congressional authorization, citing the Constitution. Sanders announced on Twitter that he and and Democratic Representative Ro Khanna intended to introduce legislation in a bid to prevent the president from escalating tensions with Iran, and curbing the possibility of war.
"I am introducing a bill with Rep. Khanna to stop Donald Trump from illegally taking us to war against Iran," Sanders posted to Twitter on Friday. "It's working-class kids who will have to fight and die in a disastrous new Middle East conflict—not the children of billionaires."
Khanna told MSNBC on Friday that the bill would "cut off any funding for offensive action against Iran or Iranian officials."
Newsweek has reached out to the White House for comment.Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) listen during a press conference, to address remarks made by US President Donald Trump earlier in the day, in Washington, D.C. on July 15
Beatrice Maneshi, an Iranian-American who is the founder of Netherlands-based Catalystas Consulting, explained to Newsweek that it would be a war crime if Trump attacked cultural heritage sites that are recognized by UNESCO. She noted that Iran and the U.S. are both signatories of UNESCO's 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Heritage in the Event of Armed Conflict, meaning such sites are "not supposed to be targeted under any circumstances during a conflict."
Maneshi pointed out that Trump's former ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley "called the destruction of cultural heritage by ISIS as a crime against the UNESCO treaty itself and cited it as one of the many things that was wrong with Daesh [an Arabic acronym for ISIS] at the time."
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif also described Trump's warning as threatening a war crime, while comparing it to ISIS.
"A reminder to those hallucinating about emulating ISIS war crimes by targeting our cultural heritage: Through MILLENNIA of history, barbarians have come and ravaged our cities, razed our monuments and burnt our libraries," Zarif wrote on Twitter. "Where are they now? We're still here, & standing tall," he added.
Hilal Khashan, a professor of political studies and administration at the American University of Beirut, told Newsweek that Iran would likely be cautious in its response to the U.S.
"The Iranians and their proxies have very limited options. They know the U.S. will respond directly and hit the Iranians," Khashan said. "The Iranians will bite the bullet."
However, he noted that the attack against Soleimani has united Iranians against the U.S., despite recent domestic protests.
"Iran is a nationalistic country. It does not matter if many Iranians may like or dislike the regime, the killing of Soleimani has created a massive wave of anger and sadness," he said. "Domestic differences are one thing, but humiliating foreign intervention is another matter."
