On March 18, 2026, military forces conducted coordinated kinetic strikes against the South Pars Gas Complex in Assaluyeh. These actions constitute a grave violation of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), specifically the Geneva Conventions, regarding the protection of objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population. The South Pars facility is not a purely military objective; it provides 70% of Iran’s domestic gas and fuels 80% of the national power grid. Under Article 51(5)(b) of Additional Protocol I, targeting such infrastructure is classified as a “disproportionate attack,” where the incidental loss of civilian life and catastrophic damage to civilian objects far outweighs any anticipated military advantage. The destruction of energy hubs during active hostilities triggers a lethal “domino effect” that compromises healthcare, water treatment, and food security, leading to a systemic collapse of basic civilian needs and serving as a form of collective punishment against the Iranian people.
Furthermore, the bombing of the world’s largest natural gas field is an act of environmental warfare. The resulting fires and atmospheric pollution constitute a violation of the Right to a Healthy Environment. The deliberate destruction of national wealth also violates the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), specifically the sovereign right of a people to manage their own natural resources. These infrastructure attacks, alongside the extrajudicial executions of high-ranking officials such as Ali Larijani and Esmaeil Khatib, represent a total departure from the UN Charter’s principles on state sovereignty.
We demand an immediate, unconditional ceasefire by all parties. The global community must act now to halt this slide into a regional catastrophe. We call upon the United Nations Security Council and the international community to mandate an immediate moratorium on strikes against “dual-use” civilian infrastructure, launch an independent fact-finding mission to document the civilian impact of strikes on South Pars and Kharg Island, and hold all political and military leaders accountable for the deliberate targeting of infrastructure essential to human survival.