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. Article 8(2)(b)(xii) of the Rome Statute corresponds to Articles 49-51 of the First Geneva Convention of 1949, Articles 12, 47, 50 and 51 of the Second, Articles 13, 14, 22, 23, 29, 30, 87, 129 and 130 of the Third, Articles 18, 20-24, 27, 32, 34 and 146-147 of the Fourth.

The USA is also a party to the 1899 and 1907 Hague Conventions, including the Second of those Conventions. Article 23(d) of the Annex to the 1899 Convention explicitly outlaws any declaration by a belligerent in any conflict that no quarter will be given.

All this is quite apart from the issue of whether or not the US-Israeli war against Iran is legal - which it isn't, as far as US domestic law is concerned, because it has not been authorised by Congress, and nor is it according to international law, because it is in flagrant violation of the UN Charter, and has not been authorised by any Resolution of the UN Security Council.

Any member of the US armed forces who obeys Mr Hegseth's directive will him- or herself be committing a war crime. Mr Hegseth is a war criminal, and is now liable to prosecution as such. He should be treated as such, under the terms of the International Criminal Court Act, 2001, if an extradition warrant is issued against him by the ICC, and arrested if he sets foot on British soil, regardless of what Mr Trump thinks about the matter!  

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