Iran defiant as clock ticks down on Trump’s threat to unleash ‘hell’

[WASHINGTON, DC] Iran showed no sign of agreeing to US President Donald Trump’s demand that it open the Strait of Hormuz by the end of Tuesday (Apr 7) or suffer massive attacks on its civilian infrastructure, in what would be the biggest escalation yet of the war.

As the clock ticked down on Trump’s deadline to unleash “hell”, global markets were largely frozen, hesitant to bet on whether Trump would follow through on his threats or call them off as he has in the past.

Trump has given Iran until 8 pm in Washington (midnight GMT and 3.30 am in Teheran) to end its blockade of Gulf oil, saying he will otherwise destroy every bridge and power plant in Iran within four hours.

Iran has rejected his demands and threatened to retaliate against infrastructure belonging to US allies in the Gulf, whose desert cities would be uninhabitable without power or water.

In the latest attacks overnight, a synagogue in Teheran was destroyed by what Iran described as Israeli air strikes. Footage in Iranian media showed Hebrew-language texts scattered in the debris of the Rafi-nia synagogue.

Israel’s military had no immediate comment. Iran’s ancient Jewish community, which numbers in the thousands, is one of the largest in the Middle East outside Israel.

Without waiting for Trump’s deadline to expire, Israel threatened Iranian civil infrastructure on Tuesday, warning Iranians in a Persian-language social media post to stay away from railways: “Your presence on trains and near railway lines endangers your life.”

‘I hope it is another bluff’

Inside Iran, residents were still hopeful the threatened escalation could be averted.

“I hope it is another bluff by Trump,” Shima, 37, from the central city of Isfahan, told Reuters by phone. Like many Iranians, she said she wanted the hardline clerical government removed, “but infrastructure being destroyed and people being unable to build the future of the country is another matter”.

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Trump has abruptly called off similar threats over the past several weeks, citing what he has described as productive negotiations with unidentified figures in Iran, though Teheran has denied any substantive talks have taken place.

The two countries have so far exchanged proposals, with Pakistan acting as the main go-between, but there has been no sign of compromise, with both sides claiming to have won the war and demanding concessions from their foes to end it.

Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan said on Tuesday that “positive and productive endeavours” by Islamabad to mediate an end to the war were “approaching a critical, sensitive stage”, but gave no further details.

A proposal brokered by Pakistan would call for a temporary ceasefire and the lifting of Iran’s effective blockade of the strait, while putting off a broader peace settlement for further talks, according to a source familiar with the plan.

But Iran’s 10-point response, as reported by Irna news agency on Monday, would require a permanent end to the war, the lifting of sanctions and a promise of the reconstruction of Iranian sites damaged by the Israeli-US strikes.

It would also include a new mechanism to govern passage through the Strait of Hormuz – previously an open international waterway through which a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas typically passed. Since the US and Israel attacked Iran on Feb 28, Iran has effectively closed it to nearly all ships apart from its own.

Trump imposed his latest deadline on Iran in a social media message on Sunday using language that Iranian officials described as desperate.

‘Trump-imposed countdown clock’

At a press conference on Monday, Trump doubled down: “The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night,” he said. “Every bridge in Iran will be decimated... Every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding, and never to be used again.”

That has left investors vacillating between bets either on a quick resolution, or on an escalation that could prolong an unprecedented disruption to energy supplies and hammer the global economy.

“We are back on a Trump-imposed countdown clock and there’s no way to predict with any confidence what will happen,” said Kyle Rodda, senior markets analyst at Capital.com. “The more intrepid traders might make a bet one way or the other. Others will look to hedge risk or stay out entirely. But there’s not much market participants can really do but wait and see.”

Iran’s envoy to the United Nations said that Trump’s threats were “direct incitement to terrorism and provide clear evidence of intent to commit war crimes under international law”. Its top military command added that Trump was “delusional”.

Alireza Rahimi, Iran’s deputy sports minister, has called on artists and athletes to form human chains at power plants across the country on Tuesday. “We will stand hand in hand to say: Attacking public infrastructure is a war crime.” REUTERS