Iran vows to ‘completely close’ Strait of Hormuz if US strikes power plants – National
The United States and Iran threatened to target critical infrastructure on Sunday as the Middle East war, now in its fourth week, puts lives and livelihoods at risk across the region.
Iran has said the Strait of Hormuz, crucial for oil and other exports, will be “completely closed” immediately if the US follows through on President Donald Trump’s threat to attack its energy plants. Trump late Saturday set a 48-hour deadline to open the floodgates.
Israeli leaders visited one of two southern communities near a secret nuclear research facility hit by Iranian missiles late Saturday, injuring scores of people. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was “a miracle” no one was killed.
Netanyahu said that Israel and the US are on track to achieve their war goals. The goals range from weakening Iran’s nuclear program, missile program and supporting armed proxies so that the Iranian people can overthrow the theocracy.
There have been no signs of an uprising, or an end to the war that has rocked the country’s economy, sent oil prices soaring and endangered some of the world’s busiest air routes. The war, launched by the US and Israel on Feb. 28, has killed more than 2,000 people.
Iran-backed Hezbollah claimed responsibility for an airstrike that killed a man in northern Israel, and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called Israel’s new strike on southern bridges “a prelude to a global attack.”
“We expect weeks of fighting against Iran and Hezbollah,” said Israeli military spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin.
Meanwhile, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates said early Monday their air defenses were facing missile and drone attacks as air raid sirens sounded in Bahrain.
Energy and desalination plants are at risk
Iran has successfully closed the Strait of Hormuz that connects the Persian Gulf to the rest of the world, while saying that safe shipping will pass through other countries without its enemies. About one-fifth of the world’s oil passes through it, but attacks on ships have stopped almost all tanker traffic.
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Trump said that if Iran does not turn the tide, the US will destroy “THEIR FAILING POWER STRUCTURES, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONES!”
The US has argued that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard controls the country’s infrastructure and uses it for military power. Under international law, energy industries that benefit civilians can only be targeted if the military’s profits outweigh the suffering they cause, legal experts say.
Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf responded by saying that if Iran’s power plants and infrastructure were targeted, then critical infrastructure across the region — including power plants and desalination of drinking water in Gulf countries — would be considered legitimate targets and “irreversibly destroyed.”
Qalibaf later added that “organizations that finance the US military budget are legitimate targets.”
Attacks on power plants would be “indiscriminate in nature and manifestly disproportionate” and constitute a war crime, Iran’s UN ambassador wrote to the Security Council, according to the IRNA news agency.
Strikes in Israel and Iran bring new nuclear concerns
Iran said its strikes in the Negev Desert late Saturday were in retaliation for a recent attack on Iran’s largest nuclear weapons site in Natanz, according to state media.
Tehran hailed the attack as a show of force, as Israel’s military said Iranian missile fire had decreased since the start of the war.
The main hospital in southern Israel received at least 175 wounded from Arad and Dimona, deputy director Roy Kessous told The Associated Press.
Israel is widely believed to have nuclear weapons, although it has neither confirmed nor denied they have them.
Israel has denied any responsibility for beating Natanz on Saturday. The Pentagon declined to comment on the strike.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said the bulk of Iran’s estimated 972 pounds (441 kilograms) of enriched uranium – the issue at the heart of the unrest – is elsewhere, under rubble at its Isfahan facility.
Fighting intensifies in southern Lebanon
An Israeli citizen was killed in his car north of the town of Misgav Am in what the Israeli military said appeared to be a rocket attack. It was later investigated whether the death was caused by Israeli military fire.
Israeli authorities have identified him as 61-year-old farmer Ofer “Poshko” Moskovitz. Two days ago, he told a radio station that living near the Lebanese border was like “Russian roulette.”
Hezbollah launched strikes in Israel shortly after the war began, calling it revenge for the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Israel then targeted Hezbollah with airstrikes and increased its presence in southern Lebanon.
Israel on Sunday expanded its target list to include bridges over the Litani River that Defense Minister Israel Katz said Hezbollah uses to move fighters and weapons south. Israel later struck the Qasmiyeh bridge near Tyre, giving an hour’s warning. Destroying bridges further divides citizens across Lebanon.
Katz also ordered the army to speed up the destruction of Lebanese homes near the border.
Lebanese authorities say Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,000 people and displaced more than a million. Meanwhile, Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets at Israel.
The number of dead in Iran in the war has exceeded 1,500, said the Ministry of Health. In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian strikes. More than ten civilians from the West Bank and Gulf Arab States have been killed in the strikes. The crash of a Qatari military helicopter on Saturday, caused by a suspected technical malfunction, killed all seven people on board, Qatari authorities said.
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