Trump threatens to hit Iran’s power plants if Strait of Hormuz not reopened in 48 hours

U.S. President Donald Trump warned on Saturday that the U.S. will “obliterate” Iranian power plants if it doesn’t fully open the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours. His message came after Iran struck two communities near Israel’s main nuclear research site late Saturday, leaving dozens injured, hours after Iran’s own Natanz main nuclear enrichment site was hit.

The developments signaled the war was moving in a dangerous new direction at the start of its fourth week.

Trump — who is facing increasing pressure at home to secure the strait as oil prices soar — issued the ultimatum in a social media post while he spent the weekend at his Florida home.

Trump said he’s giving Iran 48 hours to open the vital waterway or the U.S. would destroy various power plants in the country, “STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!”

Iran warned early Sunday that any strike on its energy facilities would prompt attacks on U.S. and Israeli energy and infrastructure assets — specifically information technology and desalination facilities — in the region, according to a statement citing an Iranian military spokesperson carried by state media and semiofficial outlets.

According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, under the Geneva Conventions of 1949, power plants are considered civilian infrastructure and should not be attacked because doing so “may cause the release of dangerous forces and consequent severe losses among the civilian population.”

The ICRC notes that an exception could be made only if the plants provide “regular, significant and direct support of military operations and if such attack is the only feasible way to terminate such support.”

Kyiv has long accused Russia of committing war crimes related to Moscow’s repeated attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in its ongoing war.

‘Very difficult evening’ for Israel, PM says

The Iranian strikes in Israel came after Tehran’s main nuclear enrichment site at Natanz was hit earlier in the day.

The Israeli military said its defences were not able to intercept missiles that hit the southern cities of Dimona and Arad, the largest near the nuclear research centre in Israel’s sparsely populated Negev desert. It was the first time Iranian missiles penetrated Israel’s air defence systems in the area around the nuclear site.

“If the Israeli regime is unable to intercept missiles in the heavily protected Dimona area, it is, operationally, a sign of entering a new phase of the battle,” Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on X before word of the Arad strike spread.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said more emergency crews were being sent to the scene.

“This is a very difficult evening,” he said.

Rescue workers said the direct hit in Arad caused widespread damage across at least 10 apartment buildings, leaving three of them in danger of collapsing. At least 64 people were taken to hospitals.

‘War is not close to ending’

“The war is not close to ending,” said Israel’s army chief Gen. Eyal Zamir.

Earlier, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a video statement that next week, “the intensity of the attacks” by Israel and the United States against Iran’s ruling theocracy will “increase significantly.”

He spoke shortly after fragments from an Iranian missile slammed into an empty kindergarten near Tel Aviv. Israeli army spokesperson Nadav Shoshani posted a video on social media platform X of the kindergarten building; no casualties were reported as it was empty at the time.

Also on Saturday, Iran’s state broadcaster, citing the health ministry, said the death toll from the country’s conflict with Israel and the U.S. has surpassed 1,500.

Israel denies striking nuclear enrichment facility

Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment facility — nearly 220 kilometres southeast of Tehran — was hit in an airstrike on Saturday, an official Iranian news agency reported, saying there was no radiation leakage.

The Israeli military denied that Israel was responsible for the strike that hit the nuclear enrichment facility.

The facility, Iran’s main uranium enrichment site, was hit in the first week of the war, and several buildings appeared damaged, according to satellite images. The United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), had said that “no radiological consequence” was expected from that earlier strike. Natanz had also been targeted in the 12-day war last June.

On Saturday, the IAEA said on X that it was informed by Iran about the Natanz strike and about there being no increase in off-site radiation levels. The agency said it was looking into the incident.

Tehran warns of global attacks

Iran’s top military spokesperson, Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi, warned on Friday that “parks, recreational areas and tourist destinations” worldwide will not be safe for the country’s enemies. The threat renewed concerns that Tehran may revert to using militant attacks beyond the Middle East as a pressure tactic.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei praised Iranians’ steadfastness in the face of war in a written statement read on Iranian television to mark Persian New Year, or Nowruz. Khamenei has not been seen in public since he became supreme leader following Israeli strikes that killed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and reportedly wounded him.

With little information coming out of Iran, it was not clear how much damage its arms, nuclear or energy facilities have sustained in the punishing U.S. and Israeli strikes, which began on Feb. 28 — or even who was truly in charge of the country. But Iran’s attacks are still choking off oil supplies and raising food and fuel prices far beyond the Middle East.

Meanwhile, the U.S. condemned Iran for targeting a joint U.K.-U.S. base in the Indian Ocean.

The Iranian attack on the Diego Garcia airbase on Friday — located about 4,000 kilometres from Iran — suggested Tehran has in its stockpile missiles that can go farther than it had previously acknowledged.

Britain’s Ministry of Defence said on Saturday that Iran’s “lashing out across the region and holding hostage the Strait of Hormuz are a threat to British interests and British allies.”

Britain has not participated in U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran, but it has allowed American bombers to use its bases to attack Iran’s missile sites.

The British government said on Friday that U.S. bombers can also use U.K. bases, including Diego Garcia, in operations to prevent Iran from attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran — which has effectively blockaded the strategic strait as an economic pressure tactic — targeted the base before that U.K. statement.

Shifting rationales for war

The U.S. and Israel have offered shifting rationales for the war, from hoping to foment an uprising that topples Iran’s leadership to eliminating its nuclear and missile programs and its support for armed proxies.

There have been no signs of an uprising, while internet restrictions limit information from Iran.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he was considering “winding down” military operations in the Middle East even as the United States was sending three more amphibious assault ships and roughly 2,500 additional marines to the region. The marines will join more than 50,000 U.S. troops already in the area.

The war’s effects are being felt far beyond the Middle East, raising food and fuel prices.

‘Targeted ground operation’ in Lebanon

The Israeli military said its forces were conducting a “targeted ground operation” in Lebanon on Saturday with the support of Israeli aircraft, and at least four militants were killed.

Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah, which operates out of Lebanon and launched strikes on Israel after Israel attacked Iran, also released a statement saying its fighters clashed with Israeli troops in the village of Khiam, in the country’s south.

Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,000 people and displaced more than one million in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese government.