The US hit bridges, energy facilities and a key Iranian port over the weekend, thereby, expanding its aerial campaign against Iran, and inviting swift Iranian strikes in retaliation against the US allies in the Middle East.
US airstrikes hit bridges in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province, killing at least seven people, Iranian state TV reported. The bridges were a key transit point for Bandar Abbas, Iran’s main port. Further US airstrikes brought down a tower in Chabahar port on the Gulf of Oman that the US military claimed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) used to facilitate attacks on vessels in the strait of Hormuz. The US also targeted key electrical infrastructure and Iranshahr airport.
The Iranian military, in return, has responded to US strikes by targeting Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Oman and Qatar with American military bases in the region besides energy & civilian infrastructure being prime targets. Iranian strikes also hit a Kuwaiti oil storage facility and desalination plant.
However, under international humanitarian law, deliberately targeting objects indispensable to civilian survival or civilian infrastructure that provides no military advantage is considered a war crime.
The legal consensus on air & missile strikes affecting civilian infrastructure in the region:
1. Legal Protections: The Geneva Conventions strictly prohibit attacks on essential civilian services, such as drinking water installations, power plants, and healthcare facilities. Under Article 54 of Additional Protocol I, these are explicitly protected.
2. Military Necessity Test: Energy and transport targets are only legally permissible if they definitively support military action. Targeting civilian facilities simply to cripple a nation's modern society or coerce political negotiations is prohibited.
3. Ongoing Conflict Context: Expanded aerial campaigns by the US against Iran and Iran's retaliatory missile strikes have generated serious concerns among international legal experts and human rights watch groups regarding violations of the laws of armed conflict.
Both the United Nations and human rights organizations have strongly condemned attacks on energy infrastructure, cautioning that these actions can cross the line into war crimes.
While the Iranian government officially accuses the US of committing war crimes by targeting sites like wheat silos, maritime control towers, and bridges, US officials maintain that operations are conducted strictly against military logistics infrastructure.
Similarly, Iran's retaliatory strikes on the region's energy & civilian infrastructure, too, is a clear crossing of the thin red line, all of which, will practically & ultimately achieve nothing but only cause further economic damage & devastation to the already battered region going forward...
Time for some sanity to prevail here across both sides lest it gets out of anyone's control as the latest wave of escalatory attacks in an already volatile region is likely to escalate further with Iran planning another economic retaliation using chokepoint geography asking its preferred and highly impactful strategy so far.
Iran is now planning & scripting a special role for its traditional proxy in Yemen, the Houthis, to be prepared to close another strategic oil route in the region, Bab-el-Mandip, through the Red Sea, as they had done earlier in 2023, if the US continues to target Iranian energy infrastructure, a threat, if realized through, could literally spook and completely paralyse the global energy markets given it accounts for 12% of global energy flows, in addition, to Strait of Hormuz's 20% share.
Thus, around a third of global oil & gas supplies is likely to be disrupted and blocked going forward with a huge global economic fallout Inevitable. And if the ongoing Ukrainian attacks on the Russian energy infrastructure further escalate, to thwart windfall profits prospects for Russian energy exports, and end up creating further damage; it will actually be a dead end for the world economy with the global crude oil prices likely to touch $200 per barrel within a jiffy...
