WASHINGTON — The White House came out swinging Thursday against a United Nations-sponsored investigation that found “reasonable grounds” to conclude the US committed war crimes in Iran.
The fact-finding mission stood up by the global body’s notorious Human Rights Council said that the US should pay “full reparations to victims” of two attacks that occurred on Feb. 28, the first day of Operation Epic Fury, at a school and a sports complex in southern Iran.
“The UN Human Rights Council has accomplished nothing for human rights while spouting unserious nonsense for decades,” said White House principal deputy press secretary Anna Kelly.
“The only party in this conflict that has committed war crimes is the Iranian regime, which has murdered thousands of its own people, killed Americans overseas, executed acts of terrorism in the Strait of Hormuz, and launched indiscriminate attacks against its neighbors in the region.”
Kelly added that President Trump “is courageously ensuring that such an evil country never possesses a nuclear weapon, which will make the entire world safer and more stable.”
The 47-member Human Rights Council — which includes authoritarian nations such as China, Cuba and Ethiopia — will formally receive the investigative report on Monday as President Trump prepares to attend meetings held as part of the annual UN General Assembly.
The probe focused on US airstrikes that hit a school in Minab and a “clearly identifiable sports complex and residential area” in Lamerd, allegedly killing 178 civilians, the investigators said.
“The mission found reasonable grounds to believe the United States committed the war crime of launching indiscriminate attacks resulting in the loss of life or injury to civilians or damage to civilian objects,” a UN statement read.
The Minab school strike reportedly resulted from the US military relying upon outdated maps, though Trump insisted in June that it may never be clear where fault lies because “there were missiles flying all over the place.”
The UN panel said that the bombing of the school constituted a war crime because “the U.S acted wilfully, that is with the requisite mental element of recklessness.”
The assessment cited “the U.S. Government’s deprioritisation of civilian harm mitigation and of compliance with [international humanitarian law]; expressed through public statements by senior U.S. leadership, including the President and the Secretary of Defense, which dismiss binding obligations … ahead of and in relation to the armed conflict in Ira.”
The 18-page report asserts that “the U.S. directed the strikes at the building of the school while being aware of a substantial risk of striking a civilian object and acting recklessly as regards the possibility that this would happen.”
Investigators also assessed that Iran committed human rights abuses against its own residents by violently suppressing anti-regime protests and executing their participants.
“Iran is responsible for gross human rights violations, including of the rights to life, freedom from torture and ill-treatment, personal security and liberty, fair trial, effective remedy, of peaceful assembly, to freedom of expression and association, and to equality and non-discrimination, privacy, and health,” the report says.
The findings come as the UN is selecting a new secretary-general, with sources telling The Post that Trump favors FIFA President Gianni Infantino as a last-minute entrant.
