Twelve hours before his deadline for Iran to accept his deal or face destruction, President Donald Trump issued the country a grave warning, saying “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”
“However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS?” he said Tuesday morning on social media.
His post came on the heels of overnight U.S. strikes on Kharg Island, the core of Iran’s oil economy.
The strikes, which began about 2 a.m. Eastern time, hit military targets including runways and bunkers but not the island’s oil infrastructure, two officials told The Washington Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity to provide details not yet made public. No ground forces were involved, they said. One of the officials said the targets struck included areas the U.S. had hit earlier in the military operations.
One of the U.S. officials also confirmed that on Sunday the U.S. used several of its bunker-buster bombs to hit Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps leadership in a deep underground bunker. The official would not provide an assessment of what IRGC leadership had been hit, saying the information was classified.
The GBU-57 MOP is a 30,000-pound bomb that can strike hundreds of feet underground. It was first used in combat last year against Iranian nuclear targets and is carried by the B-2 stealth bomber. It is one of the largest nonnuclear bombs in the U.S. arsenal.
Trump had issued a deadline of Tuesday at 8 p.m. Eastern time for Iran to open up the Strait of Hormuz, pledging destruction by midnight if leaders don’t comply. On the evening of the deadline, he said, “the entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night.”
Trump has made threats at times seeming to aim for negotiating advantage. But the warning against the entire nation of Iran, with a population of 93 million, was remarkable for a world leader, particularly one who has laid claims to being a peacemaker.
Trump called Tuesday night “one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World,” in his post. “47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end,” he wrote.
Iran has so far refused to back down to Trump’s threats, saying U.S. attacks would be met with a strong response.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Monday that “deadlines shouldn’t cause us to have the slightest doubt in defending our country.”
Kazem Gharibabadi, a deputy foreign minister, said Monday that Iran would retaliate against any attacks on civilian infrastructure with a “regret-inducing” response.
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