Pete Hegseth Giving No Quarter Against Iran.
On the 13th March 2026, Peter Brian ('Pete') Hegseth, the US Secretary of War, as we must call him now, asserted that 'no quarter would be given' against Iran in the US-Israeli war against that country (see: here ; Guardian, 14th March ; Axios, 15th March ). This constitutes a war crime under Article 8(2)(b)(xii) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, and any member of the US armed forces who complied with it would be guilty of this war crime. Of course, the United States does not accept, and is not a party to, the Rome Statute. It is , however, a party to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949. President Truman signed them on 12th August 1949, and the US Senate ratified them on 2nd August 1955. Under the terms of Article 8(2)(a) of the Rome Statute, war crimes are defined as 'Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949', and lists a series of acts against persons and property protected under the relevant Geneva Convention. Articl...