President Donald Trump says he\u2019s pulling back on his threats to widen attacks in Iran to include an array of bridges, power plants and other civilian targets, subject to Iran agreeing to a two week ceasefire and reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump says he\u2019s pulling back on his threats to widen attacks in Iran to include an array of bridges, power plants and other civilian targets, subject to Iran agreeing to a two week ceasefire and reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
In a post on his social media site Tuesday evening, Trump said Iran could agree \u201cto the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz\u201d and said that he\u2019d then \u201csuspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since the war began in February, Trump has set a series of deadlines threatening escalation of the conflict, only to back off just before they expire.<\/p>\n
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP\u2019s earlier story follows below.<\/p>\n
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) \u2014<\/p>\n
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<\/a> \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 The U.S. and Israel have battered Iran with attacks targeting its military capabilities, leadership and nuclear program. Iran has responded<\/a> with a stream of strikes on Israel and Gulf Arab neighbors, causing regional chaos<\/a> and outsized economic and political shock<\/a>.<\/p>\n As Trump\u2019s deadline neared, an official said indirect talks continued between the United States and Iran.<\/p>\n Pakistan\u2019s prime minister urged Trump to extend his deadline by two weeks to allow diplomacy to advance. In a post on X, Shehbaz Sharif, whose country has been leading negotiations, also asked Iran to open up for two weeks the strait through which a fifth of the world\u2019s oil transits in peacetime. The White House said Trump had been informed of the proposal and would respond.<\/p>\n Even before the deadline, airstrikes hit two bridges and a train station, and the U.S. hit military infrastructure on Kharg 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 unless there is a major diplomatic breakthrough. Tehran previously rejected a 45-day ceasefire proposal<\/a> by Egyptian, Pakistani and Turkish mediators, saying it wants a permanent end to the war.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> in a matter of hours and reduce all power plants to smoking rubble in roughly the same time frame.<\/p>\n It was not clear if airstrikes against Iran on Tuesday 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 While Iran cannot match the sophistication of U.S. and Israeli weaponry or their dominance in the air, its chokehold on the strait since the war began in late February 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 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 \u201cThey\u2019re not allowed to do that,\u201d Trump said in a phone call with NBC News.<\/p>\n A general in Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard general 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. 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 In Rome, Pope Leo XIV said Tuesday that the threats were \u201ctruly unacceptable\u201d and that such attacks would violate international law.<\/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 A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was \u201cdeeply troubled\u201d by the threats, saying no military objective justified targeting civilian infrastructure.<\/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 several cities 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. 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