‘That’s Not a War Crime?’ ABC’s Jon Karl Grills Trump’s UN Ambassador Over new Threat to ‘Knock Out’ Iran’s Infrastructure

ABC News’s Jon Karl pressed U.N Ambassador Mike Waltz Sunday on President Donald Trump’s new threat to destroy Iran’s infrastructure now that the ceasefire has been broken.

On Sunday, as peace negotiators prepared to meet in Islamabad, Trump posted to Truth Social:

We’re offering a very fair and reasonable DEAL, and I hope they take it because, if they don’t, the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran. NO MORE MR. NICE GUY! They’ll come down fast, they’ll come down easy and, if they don’t take the DEAL, it will be my Honor to do what has to be done, which should have been done to Iran, by other Presidents, for the last 47 years.

Karl asked Waltz, “Is he prepared to do what he threatened here? He said, ‘destroy every power plant and every bridge in the country.’ Full on, in-depth war extended in the Middle East. He’s ready for that?”

Waltz answered that “all options” were on the table, including taking out Iran’s infrastructure “relatively easily.”

Waltz continued, “And just to get ahead of a lot of the critics and hand-wringing throwing out irresponsible terms like ‘war crimes‘ — attacking, destroying infrastructure that has clearly and historically been used for military purposes is not a war crime —”

“But, Mr. Ambassador, let me be clear,” Karl interrupted. “The president today said that he would knock out every single power plant and every single bridge in Iran. He’s not just talking about those that are supporting the military infrastructure. He’s saying every bridge and every power plant in the country. That wouldn’t be a war crime?”

“That would be an escalatory ladder,” Waltz said. “And if you go back in the history of warfare, go all the way back to World War II, of course we bombed and took down bridges, other infrastructure, power plants that, yes, could be used for civilian but also are used to manufacture drones and missiles.”

Waltz continued:

And the Iranian regime in particular, and its terrorist proxies have a long history of actually deliberately hiding military infrastructure in hospitals, schools, neighborhoods, and other civilian assets. So, they are standing on, they have no ground to stand on, number one. Number two, they have a long history of commingling. Number three, it’s perfectly acceptable in the rules of land warfare, and number four, the Iranian regime is launching drones and missiles directly into civilian homes, hotels and resorts across the Gulf. So, this is just a ridiculous argument we’ve heard in the media from the Iranians and frankly, from some lawmakers here at home.

“I mean, again, hitting every single bridge, every single power plant in the country goes beyond simply those that support the military infrastructure,” Karl maintained as the interview ended.

Watch the clip above via This Week on ABC News.

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