Pezeshkian to Americans: Who will tell Trump that US is committing war crimes in Iran?

Does the massacre of innocent children, destruction of cancer-treatment manufacturing pharmaceutical facilities or boasting about bombing a country ‘back to the stone ages’ serve any purpose other than damaging the US’s global standing, asks Iranian president in his four-page letter addressed to the ‘American people’. He was alluding to attacks on schools, health facilities, museums, apartment blocks, sports stadia etc — all of which would fall under ‘war crimes’. So would threats by the US president to strike energy installations and water desalination plants.

But of course, the White House and the Pentagon know what constitute war crimes. They officially first denied bombing a primary school at Minab on 28 February which killed 167 schoolgirls, teachers and a few parents till evidence surfaced in the US media that the bombs were indeed American. President Pezeshkian could not have much hope left in the United Nations or US allies to convey the message either. So, the letter is possibly meant only for the record to be used in post-war negotiations for security guarantees.

The Iranian president puts on record the fact that it was the United States which withdrew from an agreement that Iran had willingly signed in good faith in 2015; and that it is the United States which attacked Iran twice since June, 2025 in the middle of negotiations and without any provocation from Iran. Referring to the obsessive need of the US to invent a threat when none exists, Pezeshkian attributes it to the urge ‘to maintain military dominance, sustain the arms industry and control strategic markets’. The oblique reference is to President Trump’s repeated asserions that he would love to catch hold of Iran’s oil.

‘At least since the founding of the United States’ in 1776, the letter reminds Americans, Iran has never initiated a war. Reminding Americans that Iran once had cordial relations with the US. It was the US sponsored coup in 1953 and the US opposition to Iran nationalising its own resources that soured the relations, the letter points out. Since then, the US foisted a monarchy in Iran, which was a democracy and had elected a popular government, armed Saddam Hussain to wage a war against Iran, imposed draconian sanctions to isolate Iran, the letter adds, before unleashing two unprovoked military attacks in 2025 and 2026.

Acknowledging the heavy costs of war and sanctions on the Iranian people, Pezeshkian points out that Iranian people have paid a high price for American aggression. Admitting that irreparable harm has been inflicted on lives, homes, cities and the future of Iran, the letter warns that this would inevitably change attitudes and perspectives. If one reads between the lines, it is tempting to conclude that he is admitting to a more radicalised Iranian state after the war and the near-certainty of Iran acquiring a nuclear bomb, which it was ready to write off till 27 February 2026.

Which interests of the American people are truly being served by this war, he asks before adding that the US is fighting a proxy war for Israel, which would continue to fight till the ‘last American soldier’ and the ‘last American taxpayer dollar’. He ends by saying that ‘the choice between  confrontation and engagement is both real and consequential’  and the ‘outcome will shape the future for generations to come’.