US to suspend strikes on Iran’s power facilities for 5 days, Trump says – National
US President Donald Trump on Monday extended his deadline for Iran to reopen the critical Strait of Hormuz to international shipping, saying the US would suspend strikes against Iran’s energy facilities for five days.
Shortly after Trump made the announcement on his Truth Social website, Iran’s state television posted a photo that read: “US president withdraws following Iran’s stern warning.” The reversal came hours before Trump’s self-imposed deadline for later in the day.
Writing in all caps, Trump said the US and Iran had “very good and productive discussions” that could lead to a “full and complete solution” to the war. Talks will continue “throughout the week,” he said.
Trump added that the suspension of his threat to attack the power plants is “subject to the success of ongoing meetings and negotiations.”
Trump did not elaborate on the discussions that took place. Iran did not immediately confirm any talks between the countries, but Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he spoke by phone with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan. Turkey has previously been a mediator in talks between Tehran and Washington.
Trump’s announcement came as the United Arab Emirates reported that its air defenses were trying to deter new Iranian fire on Monday afternoon.
Earlier on Monday, Iran warned it would strike power plants in the Middle East and mine the Persian Gulf after Trump threatened to blow up power stations in the Islamic Republic if they did not restore electricity.
The war, now in its fourth week, has already seen many dramatic changes – the assassination of Iran’s top leader, the bombing of a key Iranian gas facility, and strikes against oil and gas facilities and other public infrastructure in Gulf Arab states. The conflict has killed more than 2,000 people, rocked the global economy, driven up oil prices, and put some of the world’s busiest air routes at risk.
Trump’s deadline and Iran’s promise of retaliation threatened to raise the stakes again, with potentially catastrophic consequences for people across the region.
If carried out, the attack could cut off electricity to many people in Iran and the surrounding Gulf and take out desalination plants that supply many desert countries with drinking water. There is growing concern about the consequences of any strikes on nuclear facilities.
The fever pitch of the rhetoric shows how the war has escalated in a way that you cannot imagine at the beginning of the conflict in Feb. 28, when the United States and Israel began bombing Iran.
Trump said the US would “destroy” Iran’s power plants unless the country freed its cables from the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours – a deadline that was set to expire late Monday Washington time but has now been extended.
Iran has blocked the route, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and other essential goods are shipped, in response to US and Israeli strikes. Many ships have passed through, and Iran insists that the vital waterway remains open – just not to the US, Israel or its allies.
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The intervention wreaked havoc on energy markets, drove up food and other commodity prices across the Middle East and sent shock waves throughout the global economy.
“No country will be immune from the consequences of this crisis if it continues to go this way,” said Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency based in Paris.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has vowed to retaliate if Trump makes good on his threat, saying Iran will strike power plants in all areas that supply electricity to American bases, “as well as economic, industrial and energy infrastructure in which the American people have shares.”
Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said Iran will consider important infrastructure across the region as legitimate goals, including power plants and desalination of drinking water in Gulf countries.
Iran’s semiofficial Fars news agency, which is close to the Revolutionary Guard, published a list of such sites, including the United Arab Emirates’ nuclear power plant. Over the weekend, Iran launched missiles aimed at Israel’s Dimona, near the center of its long-suspected nuclear weapons program. Israel’s land was not destroyed.
Meanwhile, the head of the United States Central Command, Adm. Brad Cooper, in an interview, said that Iran was launching missiles and drones at populated areas, and suggested that those areas would be targeted.
“You have to stay inside for now,” Cooper told Iranian citizens in an interview with the Farsi-language satellite network Iran International that began Monday.
In his first one-on-one interview since the war began, Cooper said the US and Israel were targeting infrastructure and manufacturing facilities to destroy Iran’s ability to rebuild its military.
“It’s not just about today’s threat,” he said. “We are removing a future threat.”
Israel launched a new offensive on Monday in the Iranian capital, saying it had “started a wave of strikes” on infrastructure targets in Tehran without immediately elaborating. Explosions were heard in many places in the afternoon. It was not yet clear what was hit.
As the US sends more assault ships and more Marines to the Middle East, Iran has warned against any land attack.
“Any attempt by the enemy to target the coast or islands of Iran, naturally and in accordance with established military practices, will lead to the mining of all access routes … to the Persian Gulf and its borders,” Iran’s Defense Council warned in a statement.
Widespread use of mines would endanger not only warships but also dozens of commercial vessels waiting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, and the cleanup would last long after the end of the conflict.
Trump has said he has no plans to send ground troops to Iran but also said he is keeping all options open. Israel has suggested that its underground forces could be part of the war.
Israel also attacked an Iranian terrorist group linked to Hezbollah in Lebanon during the war, and the group fired hundreds of rockets into Israel.
In recent days, Israel has bombed several apartments in Beirut and blown up bridges over the Litani River in southern Lebanon.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called the targeting of the bridges a “prelude to a global attack,” while Egypt condemned the strikes as “collective punishment” of civilians for Hezbollah’s actions.
Authorities say Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon and displaced more than a million.
The death toll in Iran has exceeded 1,500, the Ministry of Health said. In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian strikes. At least 13 members of the American military were killed, along with more than a dozen civilians in West Bank and Gulf Arab states.
Oil prices remained stubbornly high in early trade, with the price of Brent crude, the international standard, around US$113 a barrel, up 55 percent since the war began.
Jorge Moreira da Silva, the chief executive of the United Nations, said that the world has already seen the negative impact, including “higher prices of oil, fuel and gas” that have had a significant impact on millions, especially in developing countries in Asia and Africa.
“There is no military solution,” he said.
In another sign of the far-reaching effects, South Korean chemical giant LG Chem said on Monday it had to shut down a major industrial plant because the war had disrupted supplies of naphtha, a petroleum product used to make plastics.
