U.S. forces pummeled a critical offshore hub of Iran’s oil export industry as the world waited to see whether President Trump would follow through on his threat to bomb the country into the Stone Age unless his ceasefire demands were met.
Oil prices rose and stocks fell as U.S. strikes rained down on Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf and Mr. Trump warned Iran in no uncertain terms about the consequences of failing to negotiate.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” he wrote Tuesday on Truth Social.
Mr. Trump was referring to his 10-day deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for oil traffic, or risk devastating strikes on its power plants, bridges and other infrastructure. The president also was insisting on guarantees that Iran wouldn’t rebuild its ballistic missiles and its suspected nuclear weapons program.
At the same time, he left room for negotiation, pointing to the possibility of “different, smarter, and less radicalized minds” prevailing after U.S. and Israeli forces killed Iran’s older leaders in the initial stages of the conflict.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, citing progress in talks, asked Mr. Trump to delay serious strikes for two weeks.
SEE ALSO: U.S. conducts strikes on Kharg Island as Trump’s deadline looms
“Pakistan, in all sincerity, requests the Iranian brothers to open Strait of Hormuz for a corresponding period of two weeks as a goodwill gesture,” he wrote on X. “We also urge all warring parties to observe a ceasefire everywhere for two weeks to allow diplomacy to achieve conclusive termination of war, in the interest of long-term peace and stability in the region.”
Several U.S. agencies issued a high-urgency joint advisory warning of an ongoing Iranian-affiliated cybersecurity threat to multiple critical infrastructure sectors.
The joint statement came from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the National Security Agency, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy and the United States Cyber Command — Cyber National Mission Force.
Vice President J.D. Vance said the regime in Tehran must choose one of two pathways to avoid more economic pain and destruction.
Mr. Vance, speaking in Hungary, said the Iranians can choose to be a “normal” country that does not fund terrorist proxies in the Middle East and participates in normal commerce and global relations.
“Option B is that the Iranians don’t come to the table and they stay committed to terrorism, to terrorizing their neighbors,” the vice president said. “The economic situation in Iran is going to continue to be very, very bad, and frankly, it will probably get worse.”
The strikes on Kharg Island followed a wave of U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iranian infrastructure in recent days.
Several highways, civilian roadways and railway bridges have been damaged or destroyed in U.S. airstrikes, and Israel has attacked petrochemical facilities in Iran this week.
The U.S. launched strikes on Kharg Island on March 13. U.S. Central Command confirmed that precision airstrikes destroyed naval mine storage facilities and missile storage bunkers. The attacks avoided the island’s oil infrastructure, which is used in Iran’s exporting operations.
The island is Iran’s energy revenue linchpin, managing at least 90% of the country’s oil exports. Although sufficient damage to its oil infrastructure from airstrikes would devastate Tehran financially, the risk is that Iran’s retaliation would increase pressure on international markets.
The tense situation and rising oil prices made Wall Street skittish Tuesday. Major indexes fell as hopes for a ceasefire faded.
Esmaeil Baqaei, a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, responded defiantly to Mr. Trump’s threats on social media.
“The power of a ‘CIVILIZED’ nation’s culture, logic, and faith in its righteous cause will undoubtedly prevail over the logic of brute force,” he wrote. “A nation that has every faith in the righteousness of its path shall harness all its capacities and capabilities to safeguard its rights and legitimate interests.”
With dimming hopes of a resolution, Democrats and foreign officials advised Mr. Trump not to go too far.
“Canada expects all parties in this conflict to respect international laws, the rules of engagement, and that means not targeting certainly civilians or civilian infrastructure,” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said at an unrelated event near Toronto.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York and other top Democrats on Capitol Hill said Mr. Trump’s rhetoric alone crossed a red line.
“We speak today with one voice and one purpose: to condemn President Trump’s threat to extinguish an entire civilization,” said the group, which included Sens. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Christopher Coons of Delaware.
“This is not strength,” the senators said. “Intentionally destroying the power, water, or basic infrastructure upon which tens of millions of civilians depend to punish the very civilians who suffer at the hands of the Iranian regime would constitute a war crime, a betrayal of the values this nation was founded on, and a moral failure.”
Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said threats to wipe out a civilization “cannot be morally justified.”
“I call on President Trump to step back from the precipice of war and negotiate a just settlement for the sake of peace and before more lives are lost,” he said.
Elsewhere, the Kataib Hezbollah militia said it had released an American journalist, Shelly Kittleson, who was abducted in Baghdad a week earlier, Iraqi officials said.
French President Emmanuel Macron said two of his country’s citizens, Cecile Kohler and Jacques Paris, were released after three years of detention in Iran on spying charges that were decried as baseless.
Regardless, signs indicated escalating tension in the region.
The U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia urged Americans to reconsider participation in the Hajj, the traditional Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, this month “due to the ongoing security situation and intermittent travel disruptions.”
• Mary McCue Bell contributed to this report.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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