New Delhi:
US President Donald Trump has shared what is believed to be the day and the hour when American forces would strike Iran’s critical civilian infrastructure if the Islamic nation does not open the Strait of Hormuz for global shipping. Some analysts said Trump’s message could also be the new deadline for Iran to re-open the strait.
Broadcasting the time of a military strike is an act likely never seen before in warfare. But Trump’s methods during his presidency have been unconventional. His latest foul-mouthed threat to destroy Iran’s infrastructure Sunday was the latest example.
The threats followed the extraction of a US Air Force weapons systems officer whose F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft was downed inside Iran.
In a post on Truth Social, the social media platform owned by Trump, the US president shared what is believed to be the time of the incoming attack on Iran.
“Tuesday, 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time!” Trump posted.
This would be early Wednesday morning in India.
The war in its sixth week has expanded rapidly. Iranian missile strikes have hit Israeli cities as well as ports, airports and energy facilities across the Gulf. Tehran has also effectively shut down shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s traded oil passes, sending energy prices sharply higher.
As Trump demanded that Iran reopen the strait immediately, he used explicit language and warned of consequences if Tehran failed to comply. He said the coordinated strikes on Iranian power stations and bridges would be a punitive example rather than a military operation.
Iran’s parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf accused Trump of acting at the behest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and warned that Washington was dragging the region towards wider catastrophe.
In a message in English, Ghalibaf said Iran would not be coerced by threats and described the US posture as a violation of international law. Russia, a key Iranian ally, urged Washington to abandon ultimatums and return to negotiations.
In Tehran, however, Trump’s rhetoric appeared to register only faintly. In parks across the capital, residents marked the weekend in muted normalcy – picnics, music, kite-flying – despite the ongoing air war and sporadic strikes elsewhere in the country.
The conflict continued to spill across the region on Sunday. Iranian strikes were reported against civilian-linked infrastructure in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait. Authorities in the UAE said they were responding to an “incident” at the strategic port of Khor Fakkan following an attack, news agency AFP reported.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned that continued attacks on the Bushehr nuclear plant on the southern coast could eventually lead to radioactive fallout that would “end life in GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) capitals, not Tehran”. Bushehr is considerably closer to Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar than it is to the Iranian capital.
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