President Trump issued an apocalyptic threat on Tuesday that a “whole civilization will die tonight,” as his deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz approached with negotiations up in the air and new U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran’s bridges, railroads and main oil export hub.
After a day of conflicting reports about last-minute negotiations, the prime minister of Pakistan, which has been acting as a mediator, urged Mr. Trump to extend by two weeks his deadline of 8 p.m. Eastern time for Iran to allow unimpeded shipping through the strait.
The prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, said on social media that diplomatic efforts were “progressing steadily, strongly and powerfully with the potential to lead to substantive results.” He also asked Iran to open the waterway during the two-week period. After Iran cut off talks earlier in the day, one Iranian official said his country would go along with the Pakistani proposal.
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said that Mr. Trump had been made aware of Pakistan’s request. “A response will come,” she said in a statement.
In the hours before Mr. Trump’s deadline, Iranians were bracing for devastating American strikes that the president said would destroy their country’s bridges and power plants. Striking civilian infrastructure could be a war crime under international law, legal experts say. But Mr. Trump has appeared unconcerned.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” the American president wrote on social media on Tuesday, adding that he hoped “maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen” given the changes in Iranian leadership since the war began.
“We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World,” he said.
Iranians formed human chains along bridges and around power plants, videos and photographs posted by state and local media showed, in effect daring the United States and Israel to kill civilians in order to hit those sites. It was unclear whether the gatherings were arranged by the government, which has organized rallies in its support throughout the war.
Many demonstrators waved the flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran or held posters of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in the opening hours of the war five weeks ago. In the western city of Kermanshah, the semiofficial Mehr news agency published photos of protesters in front of a power plant carrying a banner that read, “Attacks to electricity infrastructure is considered a war crime.” In the north, protesters in front of another power plant chanted: “Death to America. Death to Israel,” according to a video posted by the reformist newspaper Shargh.
A spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, Esmail Baghaei, said on social media that Iran would “harness all its capacities and capabilities” if Mr. Trump carried out his threats to destroy Iranian infrastructure. “The power of a ‘CIVILIZED’ nation’s culture, logic, and faith in its righteous cause will undoubtedly prevail over the logic of brute force,” he wrote.
His response came as U.S. and Israeli forces carried out coordinated attacks on Iran in a bid to force the country to make a deal to reopen the strait, a key oil and gas shipping route, according to American and Israel officials with knowledge of the operations. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
American officials said that U.S. forces had launched more than 90 strikes on Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export hub, which is in the Persian Gulf about 20 miles off the coast of mainland Iran. A military official characterized them as “restrikes,” meaning they hit targets that had already been struck to inflict more damage.
The Israeli military bombed railroads and bridges across Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. Mr. Netanyahu said the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps had used that infrastructure to transport weapons and operatives, but the bridges and railroads were also used by civilians. Iranian state media reported that at least three people were killed when a railway bridge was hit in the central city of Kashan.
Overnight airstrikes on Tehran destroyed a synagogue, Iranian state media said on Tuesday. The Rafi-Nia synagogue held valuable Torah scrolls that were buried beneath rubble, Homayoun Sameyah Najafabadi, the Jewish community’s representative in the Iranian Parliament, told an Iranian state broadcaster. The Israeli military said in a statement that it had been targeting a senior Iranian military commander and expressed regret for “collateral damage to the synagogue.”
While some Iranians expressed fear over the prospect of more strikes, others were responding to Mr. Trump’s threats with indifference, defiance or bewilderment. “I think Trump is under a lot of pressure and that he has lost his mind,” said Lili, a Tehran resident who asked not to use her full name out of concern for repercussions for speaking to foreign media. She and her family were not planning to flee the city, she said, because there was nowhere to go.
In the United States, one of the most prominent voices of opposition to Mr. Trump’s threatened strikes came from Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, who issued an unusually forceful statement about the president.
“The threat of destroying a whole civilization and the intentional targeting of civilian infrastructure cannot be morally justified,” Archbishop Coakley said. “I call on President Trump to step back from the precipice of war and negotiate a just settlement for the sake of peace and before more lives are lost.”
In Washington, leading Democrats condemned Mr. Trump’s threats to destroy a “whole civilization,” calling it a promise to commit a war crime.
“It’s unconscionable to threaten the lives of so many people — grandparents, children, families — simply because they were born in Iran,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, said in a joint statement with Senators Chris Coons of Delaware, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Brian Schatz of Hawaii.
The House minority leader, Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, said in an interview on Tuesday morning that he and his fellow Democrats would try to force another vote on a resolution to rein in Mr. Trump’s use of military force in Iran. “We only need one or two additional Republicans, and I think we’re on track to securing that,” Mr. Jeffries said.
He added: “Congress must immediately vote to end Donald Trump’s reckless war of choice and stop him from getting us into World War III.”
Despite more than a month of Israeli and American strikes intended to decimate its military, Iran on Tuesday fired more missiles and drones at Persian Gulf countries allied with the United States.
Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry said that debris from an intercepted missile had fallen near energy facilities in the east and that the damage was being assessed. The U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia urged Americans to reconsider journeys to Mecca, the holiest city in Islam, “due to the ongoing security situation and intermittent travel disruptions.”
In the United Arab Emirates, the authorities said that a ballistic missile from Iran had hit a telecommunications company and injured two Pakistani citizens. Bahrain said it had intercepted nine drones, and the U.S. Embassy in Bahrain warned American government workers in the country to shelter in place until further notice.
Negotiations to end the war have been mediated by Pakistan and other countries, which have proposed a 45-day cease-fire. On Monday, Iran gave Pakistan a separate 10-point plan to end the war, according to Iranian state media. Mr. Trump said on Monday that the Iranian counterproposal was a “significant step” but “not good enough.”
Reporting was contributed by Erika Solomon, Johnatan Reiss, Euan Ward, Ismaeel Naar, Helene Cooper, Eric Schmitt, Elizabeth Dias, Rawan Sheikh Ahmad, Michael D. Shear, Sanam Mahoozi, Megan Mineiro and Annie Karni.
Tyler Pager is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.
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