Trump ramps up threats to ‘take out’ Iran before Tuesday deadline

US President Donald Trump has ramped up his threats ahead of a deadline he has imposed for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face further attacks on civilian infrastructure, while Tehran rejected a ceasefire proposal.

“The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night,” Trump said in a press conference on Monday at the White House, in an apparent reference to his ultimatum to Iran that expires at 8pm on Tuesday.

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“Every bridge in Iran will be decimated, by 12 o’clock tomorrow night,” Trump said.

“Every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding and never to be used again,” he added, noting that “it’ll happen over a period of four hours, if we wanted to. We don’t want that to happen”.

Trump told reporters earlier on Monday that it was “highly unlikely” that he would move the deadline again.

Iran says no to ceasefire proposal

Iran, meanwhile, reportedly passed to mediator Pakistan its rejection of a ceasefire proposal.

The regime demanded a permanent end to the war, the lifting of sanctions, and reconstruction efforts, in addition to protocol for safe passage through Hormuz, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.

The rejection is the latest blow to efforts to end the month-long war that has triggered a global energy crisis.

US allies are reportedly pressing for a last-minute deal with Iran, as Trump extended his deadline to Tuesday for Tehran to reopen the vital waterway. Trump during his press conference noted that free traffic of oil in Hormuz must be part of any deal to end the war.

Oil prices rose as Trump threatened more strikes on Iran, renewing traders’ fears that flows through the crucial Strait of Hormuz would remain curtailed for longer.

Both benchmarks rose almost 2%, with Brent crude trading above $110 a barrel, while US crude climbed above $113 a barrel.

Women walk past buildings destroyed by strikes in Tehran, Iran, on Monday (6 April). Image: Majid Saeedi/Getty Images

Axios reported that Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey are pushing to secure a potential ceasefire – lasting about 45 days – to head off threatened US strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure and retaliation by the Islamic Republic against countries in the region.

War crime?

Trump also pushed back on charges that destroying Iranian bridges and power plants would constitute a war crime – as outlined under the Geneva Conventions.

“I’m not worried about it,” Trump said. “You know what’s a war crime? Having a nuclear weapon, allowing a sick country with demented leadership to have a nuclear weapon – that’s a war crime.”

In an expletive-laced post on Sunday, Trump threatened to destroy Iran’s power plants and blow up “everything over there”, before announcing what appeared to be a new Tuesday 8pm deadline, without offering details.

The move adds to a series of extensions since he began issuing similar ultimatums on 21 March to force Iran to reopen the strategic waterway.

The UN Secretary-General was “alarmed” by the Trump post, spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said.

“Even if specific civilian infrastructure were to qualify as a military objective, international humanitarian law would still prohibit attacks against them if they may be expected to cause excessive incidental civilian harm.”

The ongoing threats and fighting cut against Trump’s rhetoric last week that sought to project an aura of invincibility.

Perspective

Trump spent several minutes at the start of his press conference touting US operations over the weekend that resulted in the rescue of an airman whose jet was shot down in Iranian airspace.

The rescue mission involved 155 aircraft, including four bombers, 64 fighters, 48 refuelling tankers, and 13 rescue aircraft, Trump said.

The president lauded the airman, who he said “scaled cliff faces, bleeding rather profusely, treated his own wounds” and transmitted his location to US forces while evading “thousands” of Iranians on a manhunt for him.

Fighting continued in the war’s sixth week, with Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth noting that Monday marked the largest volume of strikes since the first day of the war.

Israel, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates reported Iranian attacks overnight into Monday.

Israel struck Iran’s biggest petrochemical facility, which is responsible for 50% of the petrochemical production in the country, Defence Minister Israel Katz said.

Even amid repeated delays, Trump has pointed to ongoing negotiations between his envoys and Iran’s leadership, whom he has yet to identify, aimed at ending the war triggered by US and Israeli attacks in late February.

On Monday he reiterated that the US has an “active, willing participant on the other side”, without elaborating.

‘No rational person’ would accept ‘mere pause’

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei acknowledged the exchange of messages with the US but reiterated that Tehran is seeking a definitive end to the war instead of a mere pause, according to Shargh newspaper.

Baghaei was cited by state TV as saying a short-term detente, without no guarantees that the cycle won’t be repeated, is something “no rational person would do”.

The fighting has left thousands dead, most of them in Iran and Lebanon, and brought vessel traffic through Hormuz – through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas exports normally flow – to a near standstill.

Tehran continued striking energy targets in its Persian Gulf neighbours, including Kuwait’s oil headquarters and a major petrochemicals plant in Abu Dhabi over the weekend.

The UAE issued multiple alerts overnight, while Kuwait said its air defences intercepted missile and drone attacks.

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The Israel Defence Forces said Iran had launched four waves of missiles since midnight, with emergency services saying they recovered two bodies from a home struck earlier in Haifa.

Majid Khademi, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Intelligence Organisation, was killed in a US-Israeli strike, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency said.

Fifteen ships passed through the Strait of Hormuz with Iran’s permission over the course of 24 hours, Fars news agency reported, adding that’s still about 90% lower than before the start of the conflict. It didn’t elaborate on the ownership or destination of the vessels.

Two tankers carrying Qatari liquefied natural gas appear to have abandoned an effort to exit the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz – delaying what would have been the first exports to buyers outside of the region since the war started.

In the US, average national retail gasoline prices have topped $4 a gallon for the first time since 2022.

Crossing that critical psychological threshold brings political risk to the Trump administration and Republicans, as consumers grow increasingly concerned over the cost of living ahead of November’s midterms.

Israel has made clear that it wants to inflict further damage on Tehran’s military capabilities, assessing that Iran still has more than 1 000 missiles that can reach its territory, while Hezbollah’s arsenal in Lebanon includes as many as 10 000 shorter-range rockets, according to military briefings cited by Israeli media over the weekend.

The Israeli military is waging a parallel war in Lebanon against Iran-aligned Hezbollah.

More than 5 000 people have been killed in the conflict, almost three-quarters of them in Iran, according to government organisations and the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. More than 1 400 people have been killed in Lebanon, and dozens of others died across Gulf Arab states and in Israel.

Oil prices have been disrupted by the conflict, and soaring costs for products such as jet fuel and diesel are threatening a renewed wave of inflation.

Opec+ members increased their production quotas for May, in a symbolic move as the war constrains output and shipments from several of the alliance’s largest members.

Saudi Arabia raised the price of its main oil grade to Asia to a record high premium, seeking a spread of $19.50 over regional benchmarks for refiners in Asia.

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