Trump Threatens Devastation to Iran’s Infrastructure If a Deal Fails To Materialize by Tuesday Evening

President Trump says he’d rather avoid implementing his threat to strike down Iranian infrastructure, but if the Islamic Republic declines to open the strait of Hormuz and agree to other demands, targets can be quickly obliterated by Tuesday evening.The president expanded on an earlier posting on TruthSocial, in which he demanded that the Iranians must come to an agreement, including by opening the Hormuz strait, by 8 pm Tuesday eastern daylight time. If not, he wrote over the weekend, “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it.” Speaking to reporters at the White House Monday, the president reiterated the threat. “We have a plan because of the power of our military, where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o’clock tomorrow night, where every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding and never to be used again,” he said. Mr. Trump added that such strikes can “ happen over a period of four hours if we wanted to.” At the same time, he said, “We don’t want that to happen. We may even get involved with helping them rebuild their nation.” A third tier of “reasonable” Tehran leaders might agree to a deal, Mr. Trump insisted. “We have an active willing participant on the other side,” he said. “They would like to be able to make a deal. I can’t say any more.”A Pakistani plan, developed with other Islamic countries, was reportedly handed to Washington and Tehran negotiators over the weekend. It proposes a 45-day ceasefire, during which the Hormuz Strait will be open to international navigation and a permanent agreement will be negotiated. Iran dismissed the plan out of hand, while Mr. Trump said he has “reservations” over it. Iranian officials insist that to end the war, America must sign a mutual agreement by which both sides vow to avoid attacks on each other. The Iranians also demand reparations to compensate for their war losses. Tehran can maintain the current arrangement by which ships that wish to travel the Hormuz Strait pay up to $2 million per passage. Meanwhile the regime’s decision making process, which is dominated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, is difficult to assess from the outside. Internal divisions between various regime factions are built into the system. Even if a “willing participant” is eager to make an agreement to end the war, reopening the Strait of Hormuz for shipping might be undermined by a local commander who opposes compromise. “All you need,” Mr. Trump acknowledged, “is one terrorist that somehow has a truck loaded with — because you can carry them in trucks, large trucks — a water mine, drop them in the water, and now you tell people that own ships that cost a billion dollars, ‘Don’t worry about the mine.’ You can do that even just by saying we put mines in the water.”International insurers are unlikely to cover shipping in the Strait as long as such threats remain. The Pentagon has developed credible military plans to ensure safe passage in the Strait, a former commander of the Israel Defense Force’s navy, Admiral Eliezer Marom, told Channel 12 after visiting Washington recently. His assessment is echoed by several American military observers as well. Mr. Trump says any agreement with Tehran leaders that would avoid punishment to Iran’s infrastructure must include the opening of the Hormuz Strait. “We have to have a deal that’s acceptable to me, and part of that deal is going to be we want free traffic of oil,” he said.

Trump Threatens Devastation to Iran’s Infrastructure If a Deal Fails To Materialize by Tuesday Evening

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