‘A whole civilisation will die tonight’
US President Donald Trump yesterday warned that “a whole civilisation will die” in Iran if the country does not heed his midnight deadline to open the Strait of Hormuz, as Tehran showed no sign of budging and reported that US-Israeli attacks on its infrastructure were already underway.
Speaking in Budapest, Vice President JD Vance said the United States has “tools in our toolkit that we so far haven’t decided to use” against Iran, without explaining further.
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Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned they would deprive the US and its allies of oil and gas if Washington crossed Tehran’s “red lines”.
As the clock ticked down on Trump’s deadline, strikes on Iran intensified throughout the day, hitting railway and road bridges, an airport and a petrochemical plant. US forces also attacked targets on Kharg Island, home to Iran’s main oil export terminal, which Trump has openly mused about seizing.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed attacks on railways and bridges, saying they were “used by the Revolutionary Guards”. The Israeli military said it had already completed a broad wave of strikes targeting “infrastructure sites” across Iran.
Trump had initially vowed to carry out the “complete demolition” of Iran’s critical infrastructure, particularly bridges and power plants, only if a deal was not reached by 8:00pm in Washington.
“More than 14 million proud Iranians have so far registered to sacrifice their lives to defend Iran. I, too, have been, am, and will remain ready to give my life for Iran,”
Writing on Truth Social, Trump elevated his ultimatum for Iran.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” Trump wrote, a statement directed at a nation that takes pride in being one of the earliest centres of civilisation, dating back thousands of years into antiquity.
“However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World.”
It was not initially clear exactly what he meant or by what means he intended to carry out the threat.
Brian Finucane, a former US State Department legal advisor now with the International Crisis Group, said Trump’s remarks “could plausibly be interpreted as a threat to commit genocide” under US and international law.
With only hours left before the deadline, a senior Iranian source said Tehran was maintaining its refusal to reopen the strait without US concessions that so far were not forthcoming.
Pakistan, which has been the main go-between, was still relaying messages, but Washington had not changed its tone, the source said. If the US carried out Trump’s threat to hit Iran’s power grid, Tehran would plunge Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, into darkness, the source added, a threat that had been conveyed to Washington via Qatar.
Earlier, another senior Iranian source told Reuters that Tehran had rejected a proposal conveyed by intermediaries for a temporary ceasefire.
Meanwhile, the UN rights chief Volker Turk decried the “incendiary rhetoric”, warning that deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure were “a war crime”.
“Under international law, deliberately attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure is a war crime. Anyone responsible for international crimes must be held to account by a competent court,” Volker Turk said in a statement, without naming the United States, Israel, or Iran.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, when asked by AFP if Trump was mulling using nuclear weapons, said only the US president knows what he will do in Iran.
Earlier, the White House denied that remarks by Vice President JD Vance about military operations in Iran had contained any suggestion of a US nuclear strike against the Islamic republic.
The statement was in response to one from an account associated with former vice president Kamala Harris that said Vance implied Trump “might use nuclear weapons.”
Hours before the deadline, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said more than 14 million Iranians are ready to give their lives to defend the country in the war against the United States and Israel.
“More than 14 million proud Iranians have so far registered to sacrifice their lives to defend Iran. I too have been, am, and will remain ready to give my life for Iran,” President Masoud Pezehskian wrote on X.
According to images published by state media, Iranians formed human chains to protect power plants and other civil infrastructures.
After a campaign online and through SMS texts to sign up for the human chains nationwide, officials claimed that more than 14 million people had joined. Images showed dozens gathered at each location.
Meanwhile, Russia and China yesterday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a text already diluted from the green light Gulf states had sought to use force to protect the key shipping lane.
The draft resolution prepared by Bahrain and supported by the US received 11 votes in favour, 2 against, and 2 abstentions.
Infrastructure attacks reported by Iranian authorities included a US-Israeli strike on a bridge outside the city of Qom and another on a rail bridge in central Iran that killed two people.
Regional authorities also said a US-Israeli strike shut down a key highway in northern Iran connecting the city of Tabriz with Tehran. The Mizan news agency additionally reported a strike on railway tracks in Karaj, outside Tehran.
University student Metanat, whose classmate was killed two weeks ago in an attack, told AFP that she was “terrified and so should everyone else in the country be”.
The 27-year-old said as far as Trump’s ultimatums were concerned, “some people think they are a joke”, but “death is not a joke”.
Alireza Rahimi, Secretary of the Supreme Council of Youth and Adolescents of Iran, called on young people to form human chains around power plants across the country.
Iranian media reported that people were gathering around key civil infrastructure sites with national flags.
The Israeli military yesterday told Iranians to avoid taking trains until 1730 GMT, and train travel to and from Iran’s second city of Mashhad was cancelled until further notice.
In the Gulf, the King Fahd Bridge, a major artery connecting Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, was temporarily closed as a precaution amid fears of retaliatory strikes by Iran.
Strikes were also reported on Kharg Island, according to Iran’s Mehr news agency, although US media said the attacks were against military targets. Iran also reported that last night’s bombing caused no major damage to the oil transport hub’s infrastructure.
Earlier in the day, a series of explosions was heard across Tehran, and Iranian media reported that 18 people, including two children, were killed in strikes in Alborz province, neighbouring the capital.
US-Israeli strikes also “completely destroyed” the capital’s Rafi-Nia synagogue, local media reported.
Overnight, attacks on Saudi Arabia hit a petrochemical complex in a sprawling industrial area in the eastern city of Jubail, a witness who requested anonymity told AFP, hours after similar installations in Iran were struck.
The Israeli military, meanwhile, said it had completed deployment of ground troops along a “defence line” in southern Lebanon, where it is fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Both Trump and Iran have said a proposal touted by international mediators for a 45-day ceasefire is not yet ready.
Trump had said earlier that the plan, which is being mediated by Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey, was a “significant proposal”, but he later went on to say it was not good enough.
Iranian state media quoted officials as saying that Tehran too “has rejected a ceasefire and insists on the need for a definitive end to the conflict”.
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