President Trump issued an ultimatum to obliterate Iran’s power plants if the Strait of Hormuz isn’t reopened in the next two day. Trump retreated on Monday giving Iran another five days.
On Truth Social, Trump wrote that if Iran doesn’t fully open, without threat, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 hours from this exact point in time, the US will hit and obliterate their various power plants, starting with the biggest one first.”
Trump came back later to post that the U.S. and Iran have been holding some “very good and productive” talks that could result in a complete and total resolution and delayed the power plant strikes for five days after Iran announced that any strikes targeting Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure would met with retaliation by targeting power and water infrastructure across the Gulf and laying sea mines across the entire Persian Gulf.
Iran state media deny any talks and claim Trump retreated from the deadline out of fear of Iran’s response, who has demonstrated the ability to keep hitting back. The ministry said there had been multiple and ongoing initiatives from regional countries to reduce tensions, but that Iran did not start the war and requests should be directed to Washington, D.C. Early Monday, Saudi Arabia’s Defense Minister reported intercepting a ballistic missile launched towards it capital was continuing to intercept drones overnight.
Trump has said allies were needed to escort ships traveling through the Strait, which has been closed to specific ships since the start of the conflict, though none have stepped up to assist. NATO policy doesn’t allow for supporting its members who make aggressive offensive attacks on other countries and is purely a defensive agreement.
Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei said the Strait will remain closed until the conflict ends.
Trump hinted that he would take over the strait and is considering a mission to take over Kharge Island which handles 90% of Iran’s oil exports, which would require boots on the ground, though he claimed he would not deploy ground troops to Iran contrary to what he said a few days earlier.
Trump had been considering sending possibly thousands of U.S. troops into Iran to achieve his goals, according to some U.S. officials familiar with the discussions. Any deployment of ground troops carry much risk and has received increasing political backlash at home even from his supporters. According to an NBC News poll, 54% of voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of the war. A key point in Trump’s presidential campaign was the promise to extract the U.S. from foreign military conflicts – not drag it into another one.
Though the U.S. has been conducting the war from air and sea, the U.S. has about 50,000 troops deployed in the Middle East, with several thousand expected to arrive in the region adding to those numbers, according to reports.
Meanwhile, Iran's Foreign Ministry dismissed claims that the country had attempted to target the joint U.S.-U.K. military base on the remote Indian island of Diego Garcia on Friday as Israeli 'disinformation.'
Israel's defense chief stated there was an attempt to hit the base, more than 2,000 miles from Iranian territory as evidence that there was a threat to European capitals, as the missiles would have required longer range than the ones required to strike in Gulf states.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry rejected the accusation - calling it a false flag - in a social media post stating that even the NATO Secretary General had declined to endorse Israel’s most recent disinformation and said it could not be confirmed and that NATO was looking into it.