WORLD NEWS: Trump increases the pressure a few hours before the ultimatum to Iran expires: “Tonight an entire civilization will die” | International
In a major development, the following story has emerged from the international scene.
It was all violence and bad omens in the Middle East a few hours before Donald Trump’s ultimatum to Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz expired. The president of the United States had been threatening the country with various hyperboles (“make it disappear”, “blow everything up”, “return it to the Stone Age”…) if an agreement was not reached before 8:00 p.m. in Washington (2:00 a.m. today in mainland Spain). In this context of tension, Pakistan continues to mediate between two countries, Iran and the United States, which have proclaimed themselves winners and offered the other concessions equivalent to surrender. The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, has asked Donald Trump a few hours before his ultimatum expires for a two-week extension to give room for diplomatic channels. Israel and the United States have launched a wave of attacks against civilian infrastructure, including bridges, a petrochemical plant and, for the first time, the railway network. Washington has also bombed Jarg, the island where almost all Iranian oil sales abroad come from and which Washington threatens to invade. And Trump has resorted directly to genocidal language: “An entire civilization is going to die tonight.” The Iranian Revolutionary Guard has warned that it will respond “beyond the region” if Washington crosses “red lines.” The American president has laid the foundations for what may happen shortly with a message on social networks in which he has gone beyond the tone of violence he had been using. If in previous days he had openly announced his intention to destroy civil infrastructure, boasting that he did not care “at all” about committing war crimes, this Tuesday he has upped his own ante by threatening to destroy an entire civilization, like a modern Genghis Khan armed with nuclear warheads. “I don’t want it to happen, but it will probably happen like this,” he predicted. Trump changed his tone again As has been happening since the beginning of this war 39 days ago, the president changed his tone immediately. In the next sentence of his message he left open the possibility of a change of third at the last moment. “Now that we have a Total and Complete Regime Change, in which different, more intelligent and less radicalized minds are imposed, maybe something revolutionaryly wonderful could happen, WHO KNOWS?” “We will discover it tonight, one of the most important moments in the complex and long history of the world. 47 years of extortion, corruption and death will finally end. May God bless the great people of Iran,” he concluded his message. A man shows the remains of his apartment after the attack of an Israeli missile on a residential building in Tehran, this Tuesday. ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH (EFE) The intense bombings by both allies during the day seem to be a warning of what may come, according to Trump, if Iran does not accept his deal: the destruction of all bridges and power plants in four hours. “We can destroy the country in one night, and that night could be tomorrow,” he said Monday. The Department of Defense has abruptly canceled a press conference by Hegseth and the Chief of Staff, Dan Caine, which was scheduled for 8:00 a.m. Washington time (2:00 p.m. Spanish peninsular time). Attack on railways At the moment, Israel and the United States have attacked universities, bridges and railways on a large scale, in Qazvin and Karaj. Hours earlier, the Israeli army issued an “urgent warning” to Iranians that using trains or approaching the tracks puts “their lives in danger.” In Mashad, in eastern Iran, they have stopped train service. Iran’s Minister of Cultural Heritage, Seyed Reza Salehi Amiri, has sent an official letter to the Director General of UNESCO, Khaled El Enany, because the – now threatened – Trans-Iranian railway has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2021. 1,394 kilometers long, it connects the Caspian Sea with the Gulf. The Ministry asks UNESCO to “immediately adopt a firm stance” of condemnation, according to the ISNA news agency. One of the Israeli night attacks also destroyed a synagogue in Tehran, according to Iranian media, which broadcast images of texts in Hebrew scattered among the rubble of the temple and statements by the representative of the Jewish community in the Iranian Parliament, Homayoun Sameh: “The synagogue building was completely destroyed and our Torah scrolls were left under the rubble.”14 million IraniansThe president of Iran, Masud Pezeshkián, assured this Tuesday that both he and “more than 14 million”, of the 90 million Iranians, “have declared their willingness to sacrifice their lives to defend” their country. The Revolutionary Guard has warned that, in the event of an escalation, it will direct its retaliation against “the infrastructure of the United States and its partners in the Gulf,” whose desert cities need electricity and water, “so that the region will be deprived of oil and gas for years.” The funeral of Pierre Mouawad, an official of the Lebanese Lebanese Forces party, an opponent of Hezbollah, and his wife, this Tuesday in Yahshush (Lebanon). Emilio Morenatti (AP) Iran’s Deputy Sports Minister Alireza Rahimi has called on artists and athletes to form human chains at power plants across the country, but photos released by state media do not show crowds. Only hundreds of people on some bridges or power plants, waving the national flag. “We will remain united to say: Attacking public infrastructure is a war crime,” Rahimi said. Paralyzed markets Global markets remain practically paralyzed since the morning, waiting and not betting on whether Trump will carry out his threats or not. The chancelleries are already choosing, on the other hand, to ask their citizens to take cover. India’s Ministry of External Affairs has sent an urgent alert to its citizens in Iran, urging them to “shelter where they are” and avoid travel in the next 48 hours. The United States Department has done the same, until further notice, with its nationals in Bahrain, given the foreseeable retaliation from Tehran. In this context of tension, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have issued simultaneous public security alerts this Tuesday. Riyadh has briefly closed the bridge that connects it with Bahrain, as a precaution against possible Iranian retaliation. Pakistan mediates the exchange of messages between two countries, Iran and the United States, which describe themselves as winners and offer the other concessions equivalent to surrender. The main US proposal consists of a temporary ceasefire that involves the complete reopening of Hormuz and then negotiating a complete peace agreement. Tehran asks for guaranteesTehran, however, insists that it will not reopen Hormuz in exchange for a temporary cessation of hostilities. He wants a pact that ends the war permanently. In exchange for limiting its nuclear program, it asks for guarantees that it will not suffer further attacks – such as those in June 2025 and last February, by surprise in the middle of negotiations -, compensation for the damage caused by the bombings, the lifting of sanctions and a protocol for safe traffic through Hormuz, a passageway for a fifth of 20% of the oil consumed in the world. Israel, for its part, suffers daily shelling from Iran and Lebanon, but they hardly cause any casualties. deadly and wants to continue until Iran is weakened as much as possible. Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar accused Israel of sabotaging his mediation efforts on Monday by attacking Tehran when “both sides were about to sit down to negotiate.” According to the digital media Axios, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu telephoned Trump this Monday to urge him not to agree to a ceasefire and to continue fighting. Burial of those killed by an Iranian missile in Haifa, this Tuesday.ATEF SAFADI (EFE)Tehran seeks to convey an image of equality on the battlefield and extend the conflict to the Arab countries of the Gulf, in the hope that they will pressure the United States to end it. This Tuesday, it has once again applied its rule of paying with the same currency there, by attacking Saudi petrochemical facilities, in what the Revolutionary Guard defines as retaliation for the previous Israeli attacks against its Shiraz petrochemical plant. Precisely, Iran’s ambassador to Kuwait, Mohammad Toutounji, has urged the Gulf nations to use in these crucial hours “all their diplomatic and political capabilities” in Washington to avoid further escalation, reports Agence France Presse.
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Source: This article was originally published in another language by Internacional en EL PAÍS and has been translated and adapted for our global English-speaking audience. Read the original article here.