US President Threatens Military Action Unless Tehran Reopens Key Oil Waterway by Tuesday Night
Key Points:
- Trump warns on Truth Social that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran defies deadline
- Deadline set for 8 pm ET Tuesday for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz
- VP Vance says US has unused tools in its toolkit; hopes negotiations will prevail
WORLD DESK — US President Donald Trump issued a chilling warning to Iran on Tuesday, declaring that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” if Tehran failed to meet his deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, through which approximately one-fifth of the world’s oil supply flows out of the Gulf.
The warning came in a post on Trump’s Truth Social platform, published 12 hours before his self-imposed deadline of 8:00 pm ET on Tuesday. “I don’t want that to happen,” Trump wrote, “but it probably will.”
In the same post, Trump suggested the possibility of a dramatic turnaround. “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 wrote. He added that the world would “find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World.”
Trump also referred to what he called “47 years of extortion, corruption, and death” finally coming to an end. His post concluded with the words: “God Bless the Great People of Iran.”
The ultimatum was not the first of its kind. On Sunday, in an expletive-laden post, Trump had warned that the US would begin striking power plants and bridges inside Iran starting Tuesday evening if the Islamic Republic failed to reopen the strait. On Monday, he escalated further, saying “the entire country can be taken out in one night,” with a specific plan to destroy “every bridge in Iran.”
Meanwhile, US Vice President JD Vance, speaking to reporters in Hungary shortly after Trump’s post, struck a somewhat more measured tone. He said the US had “tools in our toolkit that we so far haven’t decided to use” against Iran. Moreover, Vance expressed hope that ongoing negotiations would prevent those tools from being deployed.
“The United States has largely accomplished its military objectives,” Vance told reporters. He added that “there’s going to be a lot of negotiation between now and then” before the deadline expired at midnight GMT between Tuesday and Wednesday.
Iran, for its part, also intensified its own rhetoric against the US as talks nevertheless continued between the two sides. The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world’s most strategically critical waterways, and any disruption to traffic through it would have immediate consequences for global oil markets and energy supplies.
