Secretary of Defense Hegseth’s statement last week that “no quarter” will be given to “our enemies” in Iran—a declaration, in military parlance, that surrendering combatants will be executed rather than taken prisoner—constituted a clear violation of international law and was a war crime, reported Common Dreams news outlet on March 16.
The International Committee of the Red Cross explains that “the prohibition on declaring that no quarter will be given is a longstanding rule of customary international law already recognized in the Lieber Code, the Brussels Declaration, and the Oxford Manual and codified in the Hague Regulations.” The Hague Convention of 1907, to which the U.S. is a party, says it is “especially forbidden” to “declare that no quarter will be given.”
During a press conference on Friday, March 13, Hegseth said that U.S. forces attacking Iran “will keep pushing, keep advancing; no quarter, no mercy for our enemies.”
Hegseth’s statement sparked alarm among legal experts and even members of Congress, particularly in the context of the Pentagon chief’s ongoing efforts to loosen legal oversight of American forces and roll back rules aimed at protecting civilians.
“‘No quarter’ isn’t some wannabe tough guy line—it means something,” said Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), a retired U.S. Navy officer. “An order to give no quarter would mean to take no prisoners and kill them instead. That would violate the law of armed conflict. It would be an illegal order. It would also put American service members at greater risk. Pete Hegseth should know better than to throw around terms like this.”
“When the U.S. Secretary of War declares ‘no quarter,’ he doesn’t project strength,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X, yesterday. “He conveys moral bankruptcy and ignorance about law of armed conflict. We advise him to review the Hague Convention and Rome Statute of the ICC, unless he aspires to join Netanyahu as [a] war criminal.”
