Trump threatens to wipe out Iran’s ‘civilisation’ ahead of Hormuz deadline

Donald Trump has threatened to wipe out Iran’s “civilisation”, amid fears of escalation in the Middle East ahead of the US president’s overnight deadline for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

“A whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” the US president wrote on Tuesday on his social media platform, Truth Social. “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”

The remarks came hours before his 8pm Eastern Time deadline (Wednesday 2am CET) for Tehran to reopen the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and gas supplies passed prior to the war.

They also came amid reports of US-Israeli strikes on Kharg Island, which handles 90% of Tehran’s oil shipments in the Persian Gulf and which Trump has previously threatened to invade.

Trump – who has repeatedly delayed previous deadlines for Iran to reopen the strait – has threatened to blow up Iranian power plants and bridges if Tehran continues to de facto shut the strategically critical waterway. He told reporters yesterday that Tuesday’s deadline is “highly unlikely” to be extended.

The European Commission, meanwhile, called on all sides to exercise “maximum restraint” in the weeks-long conflict.

“We have always said that diplomacy is the answer,” Anitta Hipper, commission foreign affairs spokesperson, said on Tuesday.

“And from our side, we reject any threats also to attacks regarding critical civilian infrastructure. Such attacks risk impacting million of people across the Middle East and beyond, and also may lead to further dangerous escalation.”

Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which reports directly to Iran’s Supreme Leader, said it would “deprive the US and its allies of the region’s oil and gas for years” if Trump followed through on his threat.

“We have exercised great restraint and had considerations in choosing retaliatory targets, but from now on all these considerations have been removed,” the group said.

Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), told Le Figaro on Monday that the crisis is worse than previous oil shocks in the 1970s.

“The world has never experienced a disruption to energy supply of such magnitude,” he said.

(bw)