WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday repeated his assertion that cultural sites would be fair game as military targets if Iran carries through on its vow to attack Americans, dismissing the view of legal scholars that attacking cultural sites would constitute a war crime under international law.
“They’re allowed to kill our people. They’re allowed to torture and maim our people. they’re allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people. And we’re not allowed to touch their cultural sites? It doesn’t work that way,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington from a holiday stay at his Florida estate.
Iran has vowed to retaliate against the U.S. for the drone strike that killed Tehran’s most powerful general last week at Baghdad’s airport.