TEHRAN - Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has sharply criticized Washington’s threats to strike the Islamic Republic’s energy and industrial facilities, calling them “criminal” and urging the international community to take a firm stand. The remarks came during a phone call with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, on Tuesday.

“The rhetoric of the US authorities, where they explicitly threaten to attack Iran’s energy and production infrastructure, is in itself criminal,” Araghchi said, the Foreign Ministry said in a press release. “It is a clear disregard for the fundamental principles of international law and humanitarian norms. The international community must respond decisively to this.”

The Iranian minister’s comments followed a warning by Donald Trump, who said that if a ceasefire agreement is not reached soon and the Strait of Hormuz is not safely reopened, the United States would destroy all of Iran’s power plants, oil wells, and the strategic Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf.

Under international humanitarian law, specifically the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, attacks on civilian areas are prohibited due to the core principles of distinction and proportionality. The principle of distinction requires parties to a conflict to always distinguish between civilian populations and combatants, and between civilian objects and military objectives—attacking only the latter.

In a separate development, Araghchi also took to social media to condemn an attack on an Iranian pharmaceutical facility. He accused Israeli forces of bombing a Tofigh Darou, a pharmaceutical company in Iran, referring to the incident as an act of war crime.

“The war criminals in Israel are now openly and unashamedly bombing pharmaceutical companies,” Araghchi wrote on X. “Their intentions are clear. What they’ve gotten wrong is that they’re not dealing with defenseless Palestinian civilians. Our Powerful Armed Forces will severely punish aggressors.”