President Donald Trump threatened Tuesday that Iran’s “whole civilization will die tonight” if a deal is not reached to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump issued perhaps his most dramatic threat yet as the United States and Israel continue military action ahead of an 8 p.m. deadline Tuesday for Iran to reopen the strait, a key waterway through which nearly a quarter of the world’s oil is transported.
In a 7 a.m. Truth Social post, the president wrote: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. 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. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!”
The threat echoed comments Trump made Monday in which he threatened to destroy “every bridge” and “every power plant” in Iran. “We have a plan because of the power of our military, where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o’clock tomorrow night, where every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding, and never to be used again,” Trump said in a White House press conference.
However, Trump also said ongoing talks with Iran were being held “in good faith” and that reopening the strait is a “very big priority” for the U.S.
The president also shared new information about the crew member of a downed F-15 fighter jet who was rescued in Iran. “He was injured, it was an amazing, amazing thing,” Trump said. “He scaled cliff faces, bleeding rather profusely, treated his own wounds and contacted American forces to transmit his location. We immediately mobilized a massive operation to retrieve him.”
Calling the mission to rescue the pilot a “risky decision,” Trump said, “I ordered the US armed forces to do whatever was necessary to bring our brave warriors back home, a risky decision, because we could have ended up with 100 dead, as opposed to one or two. But in the United States military, we leave no American behind.”
He also told reporters he was “not at all concerned” about committing possible war crimes if the U.S. followed through with the threatened attacks on bridges and power plants. He refused to say whether the operation would include civilian targets, according to The Associated Press.
Meanwhile, Iran on Monday rejected a 45-day ceasefire proposal by the U.S. and called for a permanent end to the war. “We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again,” Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of the Iranian diplomatic mission in Cairo, said.
Thousands of people have been killed across the Middle East since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, according to Reuters. More than 3,500 — including over 1,600 civilians and nearly 250 children — have been killed in Iran, according to the U.S.-based rights group HRANA.
U.S. officials have confirmed 13 U.S. service members have died, including six who were killed when a military refueling aircraft crashed over Iraq. At least 365 U.S. service members have been wounded in action since the operation in Iran began over five weeks ago.
