Esmaeil Baghaei, Head of Iran's Center for Public Diplomacy and a spokesperson for its Foreign Ministry, called out the EU on Saturday for what he claimed was a hypocritical claim that Iran was violating international law.
Baghaei was responding to an X/Twitter post by Vice-President of the European Commission Kaja Kallas, who had written that "Under international law, transit through waterways like the Strait of Hormuz must remain open and free of charge."
"Spare the sermons," Baghaei said, "Europe’s chronic failure to practice what it preaches has turned its 'international law' talk into peak hypocrisy."
Baghaei also claimed that international law did not forbid Iran from taking "necessary measures" to prevent the Strait of Hormuz from being used against it militarily, and also argued that the EU had ignored the possibility that the US and Israel had violated international law by launching a "war of aggression."
"And 'unconditional transit passage' in Hormuz? That fiction sailed the moment US-Israeli aggression brought US military assets into the strait’s backyard," he added.
US law experts concerned over potential international law violations
Over 100 international law experts in the US, including from schools like Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and the University of California, said in a letter released earlier this month that the conduct of US forces and statements by senior US officials "raise serious concerns about violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, including potential war crimes."
The letter particularly noted a mid-March comment from US President Donald Trump where he said the US may conduct strikes on Iran "just for fun." It also cited comments from US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth from early March in which he said the US does not fight with "stupid rules of engagement."
The experts said they were "seriously concerned about strikes that have hit schools, health facilities, and homes," noting a strike on a school in Iran on the war's first day.
Reuters contributed to this report.