{"id":380142,"date":"2026-04-07T20:27:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T20:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/380142\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T20:27:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T20:27:12","slug":"as-trump-deadline-for-iran-nears-iran-and-the-us-ramp-up-rhetoric","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/380142\/","title":{"rendered":"As Trump deadline for Iran nears, Iran and the US ramp up rhetoric"},"content":{"rendered":"

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) \u2014 U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Tuesday that a \u201cwhole civilization will die tonight\u201d if Iran fails to meet his latest deadline<\/a> to strike a deal that includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, while the Islamic Republic urged young people to form human chains around power plants and other potential targets.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s expansive threat did not seem to account for potential harm to civilians, prompting Democrats in Congress, some United Nations officials and scholars in military law to say such strikes would violate international law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Tehran\u2019s representative at the U.N., Amir-Saeid Iravani, said the threats \u201cconstitute incitement to war crimes and potentially genocide\u201d and that Iran would \u201ctake immediate and proportionate reciprocal measures\u201d if Trump launches devastating strikes.<\/p>\n

Pakistan\u2019s prime minister urged Trump to extend his deadline for Iran by two weeks, to allow diplomacy to advance. In a post on X, Shehbaz Sharif also asked Iran to open up the strait for two weeks.<\/p>\n

Even before the deadline, airstrikes hit two bridges and a train station, and the U.S. hit military infrastructure on Kharg Island. It was the second time American forces struck the island, a key hub for Iranian oil production.<\/p>\n

Trump has extended deadlines before<\/p>\n

Since the war began, Trump has repeatedly imposed deadlines linked to threats, only to extend them. But the president insisted this one is final and will expire at 8 p.m. in Washington without a major diplomatic breakthrough.<\/p>\n

He has also offered contradictory statements about what might actually happen.<\/p>\n

Trump has made reopening the strait \u2014 through which a fifth of the world\u2019s oil transits in peacetime \u2014 part of avoiding wider attacks and suggested that the waterway is not as vital to U.S. oil interests as it is to other countries. He has also said he would be willing to deploy ground troops to seize Iranian oil, while maintaining that major combat operations in that country could soon conclude.<\/p>\n

That means the next moves by the U.S. are largely a mystery, even as rhetoric on both sides has reached a fever pitch.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Iran\u2019s president said 14 million people, including himself, have volunteered to fight. That\u2019s despite Trump saying that U.S. forces could wipe out all bridges in Iran in a matter of hours and reduce all power plants to smoking rubble in roughly<\/a> the same time frame. He also suggested the entire country could be wiped off the map.<\/p>\n

New strikes may not have been linked to Trump\u2019s larger threats<\/p>\n

It was not clear if the latest airstrikes were linked to Trump\u2019s threats to widen the civilian target list. At least two of the targets were connected to Iran\u2019s rail network, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli warplanes struck bridges and railways in Iran.<\/p>\n

Tehran fired on Israel and Saudi Arabia, prompting the temporary closure of a major bridge.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n AP AUDIO: Trump warns a \u2018whole civilization will die tonight\u2019 if a deal with Iran isn\u2019t reached\n <\/p>\n

AP correspondent Charles de Ledesma reports Iran\u2019s leader, who is calling for human chains around power plants as President Trump\u2019s deadline nears, says millions of Iranians have answered calls to volunteer to fight should there be a ground invasion by the U.S.<\/p>\n

While Iran cannot match the sophistication of U.S. and Israeli weaponry or their dominance in the air, its chokehold on the strait is roiling the world economy and raising the pressure on Trump<\/a> both at home and abroad to find a way out of the standoff.<\/p>\n

Officials involved in diplomatic efforts said talks were ongoing, but Iran has rejected the latest American proposal.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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Trump keeps an off-ramp open<\/p>\n

\u201cA whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,\u201d if a deal isn\u2019t reached, Trump said in an online post Tuesday morning. But he also seemed to keep open the possibility of an off-ramp, saying that \u201cmaybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier, Iranian official Alireza Rahimi issued a video message calling on \u201call young people, athletes, artists, students and university students and their professors\u201d to form human chains around power plants.<\/p>\n

Iranians have formed human chains in the past around nuclear sites at times of heightened tensions with the West. State media posted videos online that showed hundreds of flag-waving people massed at two bridges and at a power plant hundreds of kilometers (miles) from Tehran, though it was not clear how widespread the practice was.<\/p>\n

President Masoud Pezeshkian posted on X that 14 million Iranians had answered campaigns urging people to volunteer to fight \u2014 and said he would join them \u2014 while a Revolutionary Guard general urged parents to send their children to man checkpoints.<\/p>\n

The Guard warned that Iran would \u201cdeprive the U.S. and its allies of the region\u2019s oil and gas for years\u201d and expand its attacks across the Gulf region if Trump carries out his threat.<\/p>\n

In Tehran, the mood was bleak. A young teacher said that many opponents of Iran\u2019s Islamic system had hoped Trump\u2019s attacks would quickly topple it.<\/p>\n

As the war drags on, she fears U.S. and Israeli strikes will spread chaos.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we don\u2019t have the internet, and if we don\u2019t have electricity, water, and gas, we\u2019re really going back to the Stone Age, as Trump said,\u201d she told The Associated Press, speaking on the condition of anonymity for her safety.<\/p>\n

Growing criticism of threats<\/p>\n

A growing chorus of international voices took exception to Trump\u2019s threats against Iran.<\/p>\n

In Rome, Pope Leo XIV said Tuesday that the threats were \u201ctruly unacceptable\u201d and that such attacks would violate international law. In some of his strongest comments yet against the war, Leo urged Americans and others to demand that political leaders reject war and work for peace.<\/p>\n

French Foreign Minister Jean-No\u00ebl Barrot said that attacks targeting civilian and energy infrastructure could constitute a war crime<\/a>. Such cases are notoriously difficult to prosecute. Trump has said he\u2019s \u201cnot at all\u201d concerned about committing war crimes.<\/p>\n

Volker T\u00fcrk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said he deplored the rhetoric being used over the last two weeks \u201cby all parties, including the latest threats to annihilate a whole civilization and to target civilian infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Airstrikes hit Iran, which fires on Saudi Arabia and Israel<\/p>\n

Intense airstrikes pounded Tehran, including in residential neighborhoods. In the past, such strikes have targeted Iranian government and security officials.<\/p>\n

The Israeli military said it attacked an Iranian petrochemical site in Shiraz, the second day in a row it hit such a facility<\/a>. The military later said it also struck bridges in Tehran, Karaj, Tabriz, Kashan and Qom that were being used by Iranian forces to transport weapons and military equipment.<\/p>\n

A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations, described the strikes on Kharg Island as hitting targets previously struck and not directed at oil infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia said it intercepted seven ballistic missiles and four drones launched by Iran. Saudi Arabia also temporarily closed the King Fahd Causeway, the only road connection between Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy\u2019s 5th Fleet, and the Arabian Peninsula. Iran also fired on Israel.<\/p>\n

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began, but the government has not updated the toll for days.<\/p>\n

In Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, more than 1,500 people have been killed<\/a>. and more than 1 million people have been displaced<\/a>. Eleven Israeli soldiers have died there.<\/p>\n

In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 23 have been reported dead in Israel, and 13 U.S. service members<\/a> have been killed.<\/p>\n

Chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz<\/p>\n

Iran effectively blocked shipping through the strait after Israel and the U.S. attacked in February. That, and Iran\u2019s attacks on the energy infrastructure of its Gulf Arab neighbors, have sent oil prices skyrocketing, raising the price of gasoline, food and other basics far beyond the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Tehran has rejected a 45-day ceasefire proposal<\/a>, saying it wants a permanent end to the war. But as Trump\u2019s deadline neared, an official said indirect communications between the United States and Iran remained underway. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing diplomacy.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands, and Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers David Rising in Bangkok; John Leicester in Paris; Rod McGuirk in Melbourne, Australia; Natalie Melzer in Jerusalem; and Konstantin Toropin, Seung Min Kim, Michelle L. Price and Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEHRAN, Iran (AP) \u2014 U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Tuesday that a \u201cwhole civilization will die tonight\u201d if…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2035,49,114,6557,54,12354,181980,122,85,119,87,20889,117780,46,1984,29157,3896,43,158728,338,238,14655,7319,140593,28063,3336,17906,4497,12131,181981,121,12526,126],"class_list":{"0":"post-380142","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-ap-top-news","9":"tag-benjamin-netanyahu","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-diplomacy","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-energy-industry","14":"tag-fahd-causeway","15":"tag-general-news","16":"tag-il","17":"tag-international-agreements","18":"tag-iran","19":"tag-iran-government","20":"tag-iran-war","21":"tag-israel","22":"tag-israel-government","23":"tag-masoud-pezeshkian","24":"tag-military-and-defense","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-oil-and-gas-industry","27":"tag-pakistan","28":"tag-politics","29":"tag-pope-leo-xiv","30":"tag-religion","31":"tag-shehbaz-sharif","32":"tag-south-asia","33":"tag-tehran","34":"tag-u-s-democratic-party","35":"tag-united-nations","36":"tag-united-states-government","37":"tag-volker-trk","38":"tag-war-and-unrest","39":"tag-washington-news","40":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}