Iran war shows norms of international conflicts have been overturned

March 24, 2026

The escalating conflict between the US, Israel, and Iran has raised serious concerns about violations of international law and the deterioration of the global rules-based order. President Trump has made repeated threats to attack Iranian energy infrastructure and power plants, while Iran has retaliated by striking energy facilities across multiple Gulf nations, resulting in damage to at least 40 energy assets in nine countries. Luis Moreno Ocampo, the International Criminal Court's founding chief prosecutor, has stated that these actions constitute crimes of aggression and potential war crimes under international law, comparing them to Russia's attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure.

Who is affected

Iranian civilians (facing potential power and water outages)
Civilian populations in Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Iraq, and Israel (where energy infrastructure has been attacked)
Iran (experiencing attacks on fuel depots and threats to power plants and gas fields)
Gulf nations that are neighbors of Iran (experiencing retaliatory attacks)
The International Criminal Court and its judges (facing US sanctions)
US allies participating in or affected by coalition efforts

What action is being taken

Israeli airstrikes are targeting fuel depots in and around Tehran
Iran is attacking energy infrastructure across nine countries (Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Iraq, and Israel)
The Trump administration is sanctioning ICC judges
The White House is defending its actions against Iran
The UN Security Council is condemning Iran's attacks on Gulf neighbors
The World Health Organisation is calling for restraint

Why it matters

This conflict represents a fundamental challenge to the international rules-based order that was designed to protect civilians and restrict warfare to self-defense or UN-approved actions. The attacks on civilian energy infrastructure, which experts compare to war crimes committed in other contexts like Russia's actions in Ukraine, set a dangerous precedent where powerful nations can act unilaterally without adhering to international law. The erosion of these norms threatens to create what one official called an era of "thugboat diplomacy" where countries abandon multilateral cooperation in favor of unilateral force, potentially encouraging other nations to follow suit and destabilizing the global system that has sought to prevent conflicts from escalating.

What's next

Trump has postponed his threat to attack Iranian facilities for five days and stated that Iran is negotiating (though Iranian officials have denied this). Iran has warned it would attack energy and water systems of Gulf neighbors if the US strikes its power plants.

Read full article from source: BBC