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Trump Extends Deadline to Open Strait 03/23 06:24
President Donald Trump has extended his deadline for Iran to reopen the
Strait of Hormuz, saying the U.S. will hold off on power plant strikes for five
days.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- President Donald Trump has extended his
deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, saying the U.S. will hold off
on power plant strikes for five days.
Trump made the announcement on his Truth Social site Monday, just hours
ahead of a deadline later in the day.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP's earlier story follows below.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- Iran warned Monday that it would strike
electricity plants across the Middle East and mine the Persian Gulf after U.S.
President Donald Trump threatened to bomb power stations in the Islamic
Republic if it did not reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz to international
shipping.
The war, now in its fourth week, has already seen several dramatic turning
points -- the killing of Iran's supreme leader, the bombing of a key Iranian
gas field, and strikes targeting oil and gas facilities and other civilian
infrastructure in Gulf Arab nations. The conflict has killed more than 2,000
people, shaken the global economy, sent oil prices surging, and endangered some
of the world's busiest air corridors.
Trump's ultimatum and Iran's promise of retaliation now threaten to raise
the stakes yet again, with potentially catastrophic repercussions for civilians
across the region.
If carried out, the attacks could cut electricity to wide swaths of people
in Iran and around the Gulf and knock out desalination plants that provide many
desert nations with drinking water. There are also increasing concerns about
the consequences any of strikes on nuclear facilities.
Even if the attacks are not carried out, the fever pitch of the rhetoric
shows how the war has spiraled to a point unimaginable at the start of the
conflict on Feb. 28, when the United States and Israel began bombing Iran.
Trump issues a deadline and trades threats with Tehran
Trump said the U.S. would "obliterate" Iran's power plants unless the
country releases its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours -- a
deadline that expires late Monday Washington time.
Iran has shut the strait, through which a fifth of the world's oil is
shipped along with other important commodities, in response to U.S. and Israeli
strikes. A trickle of ships has gotten through, and Iran insists the crucial
waterway remains open -- just not to the U.S., Israel or their allies.
The chokehold has wreaked havoc on energy markets, pushed up the prices on
food and other goods well beyond the Middle East and sent shock waves
throughout the global economy.
"No country will be immune to the effects of this crisis if it continues to
go in this direction," said Fatih Birol, the head of the Paris-based
International Energy Agency.
Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard promised retaliation if Trump made
good on his threat, saying Iran it would hit power plants in all areas that
supply electricity to American bases, "as well as the economic, industrial and
energy infrastructures in which Americans have shares."
Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said Iran would consider
vital infrastructure across the region to be legitimate targets, including
energy and desalination facilities critical for drinking water in Gulf nations.
Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency, which is close to the Revolutionary
Guard, published a list of such facilities, including the United Arab Emirates'
nuclear power plant. Over the weekend, Iran launched missiles targeting Dimona
in Israel, near a facility key to its long-suspected atomic weapons program.
The Israeli facility wasn't damaged.
United States Central Command chief Adm. Brad Cooper, meanwhile, claimed in
an interview that Iran was launching missiles and drones from populated areas,
and suggested those areas would be targeted.
"You need to stay inside for right now," Cooper told Iranian civilians in
the interview with the Farsi-language satellite network Iran International that
aired early Monday.
In his first one-on-one interview since the war started, Cooper said the
U.S. and Israel were targeting infrastructure and manufacturing facilities to
destroy Iran's capabilities to rebuild its military.
"It's not just about the threat today," he said. "We're eliminating the
threat of the future."
Israel strikes Tehran and Iran warns against any invasion
Israel launched new attacks Monday on the Iranian capital, saying it had
"begun a wide-scale wave of strikes" on infrastructure targets in Tehran
without immediately elaborating. Explosions were heard in multiple locations in
the afternoon. It wasn't immediately clear what had been hit.
With the U.S. deploying more amphibious assault ships and additional Marines
to the Middle East, Iran warned against any ground attack.
"Any attempt by the enemy to target Iran's coasts or islands will, naturally
and in accordance with established military practice, lead to the mining of all
access routes ... in the Persian Gulf and along the coasts," Iran's Defense
Council warned said in a statement.
The widespread use of mines could imperil not only military vessels but
scores of commercial ships waiting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, and a
cleanup would last long after the conflict ends.
Trump has said he has no plans to send ground forces into Iran but also has
said that he retains all options. Israel has suggested its ground forces could
take part in the war.
Israel has also targeted the Iran-linked Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon
during the war, while the group has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel.
In recent days, Israel has hit many apartment buildings in Beirut and bombed
bridges over the Litani river in the Lebanon's south.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called the targeting of bridges "a prelude to
a ground invasion," while Egypt denounced the strikes as the "collective
punishment" of civilians for the actions of Hezbollah.
Authorities say Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,000 people in
Lebanon and displaced more than 1 million.
Iran's death toll has surpassed 1,500, its Health Ministry has said. In
Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian strikes. At least 13 U.S.
military members have been killed, along with more than a dozen civilians in
the occupied West Bank and Gulf Arab states.
Oil prices are up more than 50% since start of the war
Oil prices remained stubbornly high in early trading, with the price of
Brent crude, the international standard, at around $113 a barrel, up some 55%
since the war began.
Jorge Moreira da Silva, a senior United Nations official, said the world has
already seen a ripple effect, including "exponential price hikes in oil, fuel
and gas" that have had a far-reaching impact on millions, primarily in Asian
and African developing countries.
"There is no military solution," he said.
In another sign of the far-reaching effects, South Korean chemical giant LG
Chem said Monday it had to shut down a major industrial plant because the war
had disrupted supplies of naphtha, a petroleum product used in plastic
manufacturing.
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