In a social media post, the U.S. president issued a 48-hour deadline for Iranian forces to stop threatening the key Middle East waterway.
President Donald Trump threatened to strike Iranian energy facilities if Iranian forces don’t reopen the Strait of Hormuz and cease all attacks on the critical waterway.
“If Iran doesn’t FULLY OPEN, WITHOUT THREAT, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 HOURS from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
In the weeks since U.S. and Israeli forces launched joint attacks on Iran, Iranian forces have conducted waves of retaliatory strikes, including attacks targeting international shipping in the Persian Gulf and the adjoining Strait of Hormuz.
These Iranian attacks have snarled commercial shipping traffic through the waterway, which serves as a key artery for the export of fuel and other global commodities.
Oil prices have hovered at around $100 per barrel in the weeks since the fighting began, and Iranian leaders have said that prices could reach as high as $200 per barrel if the fighting continues.
Trump’s March 21 social media post marks his latest threat to escalate strikes if Iranian forces don’t restrain their attacks on non-military targets.
In another Truth Social post earlier this week, Trump denied having advanced knowledge of a March 18 Israeli strike on the South Pars Gas Field, which is jointly operated by Iran and Qatar. Trump wrote that Israel would not attack the South Pars Gas Field again unless Iran targets Qatar, “in which instance the United States of America, with or without the help or consent of Israel, will massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field at an amount of strength and power that Iran has never seen or witnessed before.”
Trump has sought to calm energy markets amid the ongoing Iran conflict.
He has also worked to rally an international coalition to help protect ships in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.
So far, 22 countries have signed onto a pledge signifying their “readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait.”
According to a readout of a call between Iranian leader Masoud Pezeshkian and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 21, Pezeshkian said that for hostilities across the Middle East to end, there must first be an “immediate cessation of aggressions by the U.S. and Israel, along with guarantees against their recurrence in the future.”
By Ryan Morgan
