- Trump threatens strikes on Iran power plants over Hormuz blockade.
- Iran warns retaliation against US regional energy, infrastructure targets.
- Iranian missiles hit Israel, target US-UK base Diego Garcia.
- Global nations condemn Iran shipping attacks as deadline approaches.
At 23.44 GMT on Saturday, President Donald Trump gave his most extreme ultimatum of the war by threatening to attack and destroy the power plants of Iran should Tehran not restore the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping entirely in 48 hours. The issuance of the deadline will expire at 7:44pm ET on Monday.
It is the threat that Trump has made that has the most significant consequences since the war broke out on February 28 - and it came within less than 24 hours after he announced that the US was contemplating winding down military operations.
Iran responded within hours. The Khatam al-Anbiya military command, which is the main operations base in Iran, released a statement in the semi-official Fars news agency stating that any attack by the US on Iranian fuel and energy infrastructure would lead to an equivalent direct retaliation against all American energy, information technology and desalination infrastructure regionally.
Iran Fires at Diego Garcia, Dimona
The ultimatum was admitted when the war was intensifying on several fronts at the same time on the night. On Saturday evening, Iranian ballistic missiles hit the cities of Dimona and Arad in the south of the country, injuring 175 people and rescue workers reported that there was extensive destruction in at least 10 apartment buildings in Arad, three of which were threatened with collapse, and 12-year-old boy was the most severely injured. The IAEA reported no accounts of damage to Israeli nuclear research centre or abnormal radiations in the region.
In another and historically-infamous development, Iran fired two long-range missiles at the joint US-British military base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean - about 4,000 kilometres (13,000 ft) away) of Iran. The Israeli army chief General Eyal Zamir referred to it as the first occasion Iran fired long-range missiles in this current war saying that European capitals are within the reach with such missiles.
An Iranian speaker to the parliament, Ghalibaf, issued a statement on X stating that in case Israeli regime can not fire missiles in central and well fortified Dimona region, then it is operationally an indication to get into a new stage of the war.
The Gap in the Trump Story of the Trump
The ultimatum expressed by Trump is incongruent with the evaluation of the successes of the US military. Saturday, the US Central Command led by Admiral Brad Cooper confirmed that US fighter jets had struck 5,000 pound-bombs on an underground facility in the Iranian coast, which houses missiles to attack ships, destroying missile radar relays, as well as missile intelligence support.
According to Cooper, Iran had had its capacity to assume vessels in the strait degraded. The Al Jazeera correspondent in Washington, Manuel Rapalo, observed that there was a gulf between what the white house seems to desire and what the US military claims it has already achieved.
On Saturday, twenty-two countries, including the UAE,UK, France, Germany, Japan and South Korea, issued a joint statement denouncing in the strongest terms possible the attacks on civilian shipping of Iran, its action of mining the strait and making the waterway closed, declaring Iran to abide by the UN Security Council Resolution 2817.
The Trump administration individually announced the temporary lifting of sanctions on Iranian loaded oil on vessels already as of Friday. The oil ministry of Iran responded that it practically possessed no oil in floating storage. The world observes Monday 7: 44pm deadline as the 48 hours clock runs.
