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Donald Trump issued an expletive-laden warning on Sunday that Tehran had until Tuesday night to reopen the strait of Hormuz or the US would obliterate Iran\u2019s power plants and bridges.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s parliament speaker responded with a warning that the US president\u2019s \u201creckless moves\u201d would mean \u201cour whole region is going to burn\u201d.<\/p>\n
The latest threat of escalation in the five-week war followed the rescue of a second crew member of a downed F-15E fighter<\/a> by US commandos, ending a two-day search after the warplane crashed in south-west Iran.<\/p>\n Iran distributed images showing the wreckage of several aircraft, but did not deny that US forces had rescued the officer who had taken cover in a mountainous area while American special forces and Iranian troops raced to find him.<\/p>\n Trump has extended deadlines at least twice for Iran to reopen the strait of Hormuz, which has sent the price of oil shooting up, and shifted his deadline again from Monday to Tuesday in his expletive-laden post.<\/p>\n The US president posted on his Truth Social website: \u201cTuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin\u2019 Strait, you crazy bastards, or you\u2019ll be living in Hell \u2013 JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump separately suggested that there is a \u201cgood chance\u201d of an agreement with Iran on Monday, telling Fox News that negotiations were taking place. \u201cIf they don\u2019t make a deal and fast, I\u2019m considering blowing everything up and taking over the oil,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n However, Trump has repeatedly said since the US-Israeli war started on 28 February that Iran wants to make a deal.<\/p>\n Iran has acknowledged that messages have been passed between the two sides, including through Pakistan. But Tehran insists that it has not entered into peace talks. Iranian officials also fear that they will be targeted when they break cover to head to any negotiations, according to diplomatic intermediaries.<\/p>\n Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Iran parliament, responded to Trump\u2019s latest threats in a social media post. \u201cYour reckless moves are dragging the United States into a living HELL for every single family, and our whole region is going to burn because you insist on following Netanyahu\u2019s commands,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cMake no mistake: You won\u2019t gain anything through war crimes. The only real solution is respecting the rights of the Iranian people and ending this dangerous game.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s expletive-laden post also drew criticism on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n \u201cHappy Easter, America. As you head off to church and celebrate with friends and family, the President of the United States is ranting like an unhinged madman on social media,\u201d the Democratic Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, said on X.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s threatening possible war crimes and alienating allies. This is who he is, but this is not who we are. Our country deserves so much better.\u201d<\/p>\n The destruction on Thursday of the region\u2019s tallest bridge,<\/a> hailed in Iran as an engineering marvel, pointed to a grim new phase of the war, in which the US president has threatened to throw Iran back to the \u201cstone ages\u201d.<\/p>\n During war, international law protects civilians and what are known as civilian objects<\/a>, such as infrastructure, rules that are enshrined in the Geneva conventions.<\/p>\n Oona A Hathaway, a professor of international law at Yale University, said the US president had offered no explanation that would make the civilian objects he has threatened to target into lawful military objectives. She also said other nations had an obligation to ensure respect of the Geneva conventions, and not to aid and abet wrongful acts.<\/p>\n \u201cIf these threatened attacks were to be carried out, they would constitute war crimes,\u201d said Hathaway. \u201cImmiserating the civilian population for bargaining leverage is not lawful.\u201d<\/p>\n Iranian steel manufacturing sites, petrochemicals plants, universities and medical facilities have all been bombed during the joint US-Israeli campaign. About 81,000 civilian sites have been damaged, including 61,000 homes, 19,000 commercial sites, 275 medical centres, and nearly 500 schools, according to Iranian authorities.<\/p>\n The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said Israel has destroyed 70% of Iran\u2019s steel production, claiming it was used for making missiles. He has also confirmed attacks on petrochemical plants.<\/p>\n Iran has been able to take control of the strait of Hormuz by threatening and attacking shipping passing through the waterway, providing a chokehold on the oil trade that is Tehran\u2019s strongest pressure point in the conflict.<\/p>\n Iran continued to hit economic infrastructure across the Gulf over the weekend in response to the attacks, in acts that legal experts have also said are unlawful. On Sunday, it struck a petrochemicals complex in Bahrain. Video footage showed thick black smoke rising from the site.<\/p>\n The Kuwait Petroleum Corporation said a number of its facilities had been targeted by Iranian drone attacks, resulting in fires and \u201csignificant material losses\u201d. Kuwait also reported that two power and water desalination plants sustained \u201csignificant material damage\u201d after being attacked by Iranian drones.<\/p>\n