President Donald Trump has warned that a “whole civilization will die tonight” but said Iran still has time to capitulate ahead of a deadline set for 8 p.m. in Washington.
The American leader issued the stark threat Tuesday, about 12 hours ahead of his deadline for Iran to agree to a deal that includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz or face punishing strikes.
Iran rejected a 45-day ceasefire proposal and said it wants a permanent end to the war as Trump's
ultimatum to make a deal ticked closer with an expanded threat of strikes against the Islamic Republic to include all power plants and bridges.
Trump said Monday he is “not at all” concerned about committing possible war crimes as he again threatened to destroy Iranian infrastructure if Tehran does not meet his deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned the U.S. that attacking civilian infrastructure is banned under international law, his spokesperson said Monday.
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And the foreign ministry said it appreciated the action of Turkish security forces to combat it.
“Terror will not deter us,” the ministry wrote on X.
The American leader issued the stark threat Tuesday, about 12 hours ahead of his deadline for Iran to agree to a deal that includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz or face punishing strikes.
Trump wrote on his social media site: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”
He added: “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”
But Trump’s statement nonetheless kept the possibility of an off-ramp open, saying that “maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen.”
A telecommunications building in the United Arab Emirates was struck Tuesday by an Iranian ballistic missile, injuring two people, authorities said.
The missile hit an administrative building for the Thuraya Telecommunications Company in Sharjah, the medical office said.
The two Pakistani nationals injured in the strike were taken to a hospital, the office said.
Iranian authorities said Tuesday that a series of airstrikes took out a railway bridge in Kashan, a train station in Mashhad and highway bridge near Tabriz on Tabriz-Tehran freeway.
Neither the United States nor Israel immediately claimed the attacks.
A northern Tehran resident says friends and family are storing water and charging phones over fears the U.S. will take out Iran’s energy infrastructure.
“By attacking infrastructure, the Islamic Republic will not be destroyed, only we will be destroyed,” the resident told The Associated Press, speaking anonymously for her safety.
The teacher in her 20s spoke to the AP in the weeks before the war when Iranians were reeling from the killing of thousands of anti-government protesters.
Many opponents of Iran’s government hoped a threatened U.S.-Israeli strike would quickly overthrow it, she said.
“Like the people who were desperate and were afraid of people getting killed again, I believed Trump’s words. I thought that he would kill a few leaders of the regime and the work of this regime would be finished,” she said Tuesday.
Now she fears U.S. and Israeli attacks will spread chaos: “If we don’t have the internet, and if we don’t have electricity, water, and gas, we’re really going back to the Stone Age, as Trump said.”
Iran’s internet remains largely blocked, throttling news as panic spreads that critical infrastructure will be destroyed in the next 24 hours.
Three assailants opened fire at police outside a building housing the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul on Tuesday, sparking a gunfight that left one attacker dead, Turkish officials said.
The two other assailants were captured with injuries.
Two police officers sustained slight injuries in the clash, Istanbul Gov. Davut Gul told reporters. The assailants were carrying long-barreled weapons.
Interior Minister Mustafa Cifti wrote on X that the attackers had traveled to Istanbul from the neighboring city of Izmit in a rented car. One of the assailants was linked to a group he described as “exploiting religion,” without naming the organization.
The Islamic State group has carried out deadly attacks in Turkey in the past.
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A previous version of this item incorrectly reported two assailants had been killed.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard warned Tuesday it would “deprive the U.S and its allies of the region’s oil and gas for years” if U.S. President Donald Trump carries out his threat to attack power plants and bridges if the Strait of Hormuz doesn’t open.
Multiple Iranian media outlets carried the statement.
It also issued a new threat to the Gulf Arab states.
“We have exercised great restraint and had considerations in choosing retaliatory targets, but from now on all these considerations have been removed,” the warning read.
Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said a 20-year-old woman was taken to hospital with a mild head injury from shrapnel in the northern town of Nahariya.
Several cars burst into flames and buildings were damaged from a direct impact on a residential street, medics and Israel’s Fire and Rescue service said.
Rocket and drone attacks by the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah have set off sirens throughout Tuesday in Israeli communities close to the Lebanon border.
A container ship in the Persian Gulf has been hit by a projectile that caused damage, the British military said Tuesday.
The attack happened in international waters south of Iran’s Kish Island, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center said.
It said no one was hurt and there was no environmental impact from the apparent attack.
Over 20 ships have been attacked in the Mideast by Iran since the war began.
The United Nations health agency has suspended evacuations from the Gaza Strip through the Rafah Crossing with Egypt after the death of one of its contractors.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a social media post that the contractor was killed Monday in what he described as a “security incident.”
Two WHO staffers were present but were not hurt, he said without elaborating.
The incident is being investigated and the evacuations of patients and wounded people will be halted until further notice, Tedros said.
The Rafah Crossing was reopened in February after long delays in a key but mostly symbolic step in the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal.
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A previous version of this item incorrectly reported two WHO staffers were wounded.
At least four northern Italian airports have imposed restrictions on jet fuel due to shortages, giving priority to long-haul and medical flights.
The restrictions at Milan Linate, Bologna, Venice and Treviso airports involve supplier Air Bp Italia, the British Petroleum group’s aviation division, and will remain until at least April 9.
Priority will be given to ambulance flights, state flights and flights of more than three hours, according to an official notice.
For nonpriority flights, the airports have imposed a supply ceiling of 2,000 liters (528 gallons) per aircraft.
The Venice airport has requested pilots ensure they have enough fuel from the previous airport for the following flight.
Ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Strait of Hormuz deadline, Iranians have expressed both their hopes and fears about the war.
“I had expected Trump would offer us something fancier than hell,” said Mahmoud Azimi, 35, who was carrying home milk and a sack of potatoes. “We have experienced an inferno because of many bad things like sanctions, assassinations and wars. So, at the end, hell is being replaced by hell!”
Reza Alaghemand 24, who runs an ice cream stall, urged Iran to keep fighting against Israel and the U.S.“
“If we stop the war, they soon wage another war,” he said. “Once and for all, we should teach them an unforgettable lesson not to attack us.”
Maryam Mehrabi, a 67-year-old retiree, recounted how it was the third war she’d seen in her life.
“There was the 1980s war that Iraq waged against Iran. Then the June war that the U.S. and Israel launched and I lost a close friend,” she said. “I have no idea what is waiting for us ahead of these threats.”
One young couple, in a coffee shop in central Tehran, offered their opinions on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
“I hate this situation. Why are officials on both sides only threatening to go into a deeper war with more damages?” the woman asked. “All night long, we hear the sound of strikes and bombings and then in the daytime, we are occasionally stopped by mushrooming checkpoints.”
Her partner shrugged.
“I feel we are stuck between the blades of a pair of scissors,” he said. “It is more than a month that we have had no Internet and now we are going to face a power cut.”
An airstrike targeting Iran’s Alborz province northwest of Tehran killed at least 18 people, state media reported Tuesday.
The strike also wounded 24 people, the judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported.
It wasn’t immediately clear what had been targeted.
A series of intense airstrikes have pounded Iran’s capital, Tehran, including a possible weapons depot in the mountains and residential neighborhoods.
The Israelis have conducted a campaign of airstrikes killing top officials in the theocracy and its military.
Facing a looming U.S. deadline, Iran’s president said Tuesday that 14 million Iranians, including himself, have volunteered to sacrifice their lives in the war.
President Masoud Pezeshkian made the comment on X just ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s deadline to bomb power stations and bridges in Iran if it doesn’t loosen its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.
The figure is double other figures mentioned by state media in the past about volunteers the government had been soliciting by text messages and media as the war went on.
Iran is home to 90 million people. Many remain angry at the government over its bloody crackdown on nationwide demonstrations and the 14 million figure likely is aimed at trying to dissuade the promised American bombing campaign.
“More than 14 million Iranian people have declared their readiness to sacrifice their lives in the (self-sacrificing) campaign,” Pezeshkian wrote. “I too have been, am, and will remain ready to give my life for Iran.”
Nearly 1-in-5 service stations in France had run dry of at least one type of fuel Tuesday morning as motorists filled tanks after Easter weekend.
There is no risk of broader fuel shortages and “oil is arriving in France,” government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon said, adding that shortages at some pumps resulted from transport difficulties that were being urgently addressed.
Around 18% of service stations were short of at least one fuel type, but 83% of those belong to TotalEnergies, which has capped prices. Weekend lines formed at some of the company’s stations because its fuels are often cheaper than other distributors.
Bregeon said about 900 trucks, hundreds more than a normal day, were traveling to Total stations with resupplies Tuesday.
“There are no problems at the refineries. When trucks go to depots, they can load up” with unleaded and diesel, Bregeon said. “We can expect a progressive improvement.”
Airstrikes pounded sites across Iran’s capital, Tehran, on Monday, including residential areas. Strikes also were reported in Qom, the Shiite seminary city to the south of Tehran.
Iranian state television acknowledged the strikes in an online message, saying more details would be released.
Areas around Parchin, a military base associated with Iran’s ballistic missile program, and points south of downtown Tehran were struck.
Khorramabad International Airport also came under attack Tuesday, the judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported.
Video circulated online showing what appeared to be a cruise missile targeting one site in Iran.
Residential strikes in the past have targeted Iranian government and security officials.
The King Fahd Causeway, a key bridge linking Saudi Arabia and the island of Bahrain, reopened Tuesday morning after closing for hours over possible threats from Iran.
The King Fahd Causeway Authority made the announcement in a post on X, saying the only route by road between Bahrain and the Arabian Peninsula reopened.
Bahrain’s airport has been closed over the Iranian attacks for weeks.
The hourslong closure came after a ballistic missile attack from Iran targeted Saudi Arabia and may have done damage to energy infrastructure there.
The kingdom has not elaborated on damage from that attack.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said attacks targeting civilian and energy infrastructure “are barred by the rules of war, international law” and would surely trigger reprisals from Iran.
He spoke ahead of the Tuesday evening deadline for possible strikes against Iran set by U.S. President Donald Trump.
“In the framework of the war in Iran, they would without doubt trigger a new phase of escalation, of reprisals, that would drag the region and the world economy into a vicious circle that would be very worrying and, most of all, very damaging to our own interests,” the minister said Tuesday morning on France Info television.
“We’re already seeing a surge of fuel prices. If energy facilities in Iran were struck, we can expect reprisals from the Iranian regime that would further worsen an already worrying situation,” he said.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar spoke early Tuesday with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty about the latest regional developments in the face of an approaching deadline for the opening of the Strait of Hormuz set by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the leaders “underscored the need for de-escalation and dialogue” and agreed to remain closely engaged as the situation evolves.
Pakistan, with the support of regional countries, has been engaged in diplomatic efforts to bring the U.S. and Iran to the negotiating table.
Abdelatty also spoke with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Iraqi Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein.
The calls included “an assessment of the rapidly evolving situation and the efforts ... to reach understandings between the U.S. and Iran to achieve de-escalation and reduce tensions,” the Egyptian foreign ministry said.
Iran has reported fatalities from airstrikes overnight into Tuesday.
At least nine people were killed in the city of Shahriar, west of the capital, Tehran, Iranian media reported.
In the city of Pardis, east of Tehran, at least six people were killed in a strike and recovered from buildings, Iranian media reported.
A Revolutionary Guard general in Iran has urged parents to “send your kids to man checkpoints.”
Gen. Hossein Yekta, previously identified as leading plainclothes units of the all-volunteer Basij force, made the comments on an Iranian state television channel.
“Moms, dads, take your kids hands and go out on streets,” he said. “Do you want your kid to become a real man? Let him feel like a hero standing right at the heart of the battlefield. Moms, dads, at night send your kids to man checkpoints. They become men!”
Basij checkpoints have been repeatedly targeted in airstrikes.
The Basij has been accepting children as young as 12 to man checkpoints. Amnesty International has warned some even carry firearms, calling their recruitment a war crime.
During nationwide protests in January, Yekta warned parents to keep their children home or they would be shot.
An adviser to Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president of the United Arab Emirates, says they have lost trust in the Iranian government after its attacks on Arab neighbors.
“We are facing a perfidious regime that cannot be trusted,” Anwar Gargash wrote in a social media post Tuesday, adding that his country had sought to avoid the war.
He also claimed the UAE’s position toward Iran’s attacks in the Gulf Arab countries is appreciated across the region.
Iranian state television on Tuesday claimed 14 million people had volunteered to fight for the country if there is a ground invasion by the United States and Israel.
The claim by state TV, which included no other information, doubles an April 2 claim by Iranian Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf that 7 million had volunteered.
Iran is home to some 90 million people. Iran had conducted a bloody crackdown on nationwide demonstrations in January that killed thousands and saw tens of thousands detained.
State media and text message campaigns have urged people to volunteer. The government also has called on retired soldiers to express their interest in fighting, while the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s all-volunteer Basij force has begun accepting children as young as 12 into its ranks.
After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, for instance, called for a 20-million Basij force.
Iranian media reported Tuesday that a synagogue in the capital, Tehran, was damaged in an airstrike.
They identified the house of worship as the Rafi Niya Synagogue.
Video from the site showed rescuers moving around and what looked like a book of Hebrew scripture in the rubble.
Iran has a small Jewish population still living in the country. Many fled during the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Likely signaling a new target for their airstrikes, the Israeli military warned Iranians in Farsi on Tuesday to avoid taking trains until at least 9 p.m. local time.
“Your presence puts your life at risk,” the warning posted on X read.
Iran has shut off access to the internet for weeks, making it difficult for the average Iranians to see these warnings. However, Farsi-language satellite news networks abroad report them, allowing the information to make its way back into the Islamic Republic.
