US President Donald Trump is threatening to order key infrastructure in Iran to be destroyed if Tehran does not comply in the next few hours with his ultimatum if it does not fully open the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic artery for global oil supply.
“The whole country could be destroyed in just one night,” and that could be Tuesday into Wednesday, the US president said yesterday.
It says it is prepared to order the destruction of power plants and bridges in Iran if Tehran does not move to lift the Hormuz Strait, through which 20% of the world’s oil normally passes, by 8:00 pm (Washington time; 03:00 am Wednesday GMT) on Tuesday.
Iran’s armed forces, calling US President Trump’s “arrogant rhetoric”, stressed that his statements have not had the slightest “impact” on their operations.
In anticipation, Iran’s capital and its region were rocked by explosions overnight, according to news agencies in the country.
The Israeli military said it had launched another “wave of airstrikes in the early hours of this morning aimed at damaging Iranian terrorist regime infrastructure in Tehran and other areas across Iran,” in a statement released by the Israeli military.
The war, which erupted on 28 February with the bombing of Iran by the US and Israel, has claimed thousands of lives, the vast majority of them in the Islamic Republic and Lebanon, where Israel is engaged in a new war with the Shiite pro-Tehran Hezbollah movement.
Donald Trump claimed yesterday that some Iranian citizens “support” the “continued bombing” and are “prepared to suffer” to bring down their government.
For the Republican mogul, a “war crime” would be to allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons — something Tehran has denied for decades that it was ever seeking.
Transcript to the UNSC
Earlier yesterday, both the Iranians and the Americans rejected, almost simultaneously, the idea of implementing a truce made by countries attempting to mediate.
According to a report published on the news website Axios, mediators, notably Pakistan, had recommended that a ceasefire be declared for 45 days, which would allow negotiations to take place to bring the armed conflict to a definitive end.
Always on the diplomatic front, the UN Security Council is expected to rule today (Wed.The meeting is scheduled to begin at 18:00 GMT) on a draft resolution on navigation in the Strait of Hormuz today
The submitting country, Bahrain, with the support of other Gulf monarchies, has watered down the text from its original version, which was intended to give a clear UN mandate to any state that wanted to use force to guarantee the safe passage of ships through this crucial artery that Tehran has paralysed.
The Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic, announced that they will impose conditions on navigation in the Strait of Hormuz and that the transit ban will continue to apply to ships “linked to the US and Israel”.
They gave no further details. In recent weeks, members of the Iranian parliament have suggested imposing a fee on ships passing through the strait.
Civilian lives continue to be lost
On the ground, the strikes continue on both sides.
Israel bombed a petrochemical complex, one of the largest in Iran, in the south of the country yesterday, while continuing operations aimed at “decapitating” the Iranian armed forces.
The Revolutionary Guards have confirmed that their spy agency chief Majid Hademi was killed in a bombing and vowed to avenge his death. Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic Mojtaba Khamenei, who continues to make no public appearances, paid tribute to him in a written message.
The Gulf countries continue to be hit daily with drones and missiles as Iran accuses them of providing support to the US.
In Iraqi Kurdistan, authorities announced in the early hours of this morning the deaths of two civilians – “a man and a woman” – who died when a “drone loaded with explosives coming from Iran” crashed into their home.
In Lebanon, the other front of the war, the death toll is approaching 1,500, according to authorities in Beirut.
The southern suburbs of Beirut, considered a Hezbollah stronghold, have been emptied of almost all their residents since the war resumed on March 2. Only a few shops remain open, an AFP correspondent found.
Along a road leading to them, residents have pitched tents where they sleep and go to see if their houses are still standing after Israeli bombardment.
