US President Donald Trump has renewed his warning to Tehran to reach a deal to end the war soon and open the Strait of Hormuz or he will order air strikes with the aim of “completely obliterating” Iran’s oil export hub of Kharg Island, oil wells, and power plants.
For the second day in a row, the US leader said a deal is likely at hand, but he also said in a social media post on March 30 that “if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached” US forces will react ” by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet ‘touched.'”
A day earlier, Trump hailed progress in talks with Iran, saying they were being held directly and indirectly with “reasonable” leaders and asserted Tehran was partially opening the crucial Strait of Hormuz, the waterway through which some 20 percent of the world’s oil and natural gas supplies pass.
But he has yet to elaborate on what he called direct talks with Iran, whose leaders deny negotiations are taking place. Tehran has said it received, reviewed, and rejected a 15-point US peace plan that was delivered through Pakistani emissaries.
On March 30, Iran called the plan “unrealistic, illogical, and excessive” while launching more missiles and drones at targets in Israel.
“What has been discussed so far have been messages about America’s willingness and request for negotiations, which we received from some intermediaries, including Pakistan,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ismail Baghaei said.
Trump has imposed an April 6 deadline for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz and accept a deal ending the war or face US strikes on its power plants.
The energy sector has become a key focus of the war with Iran, which began on February 28 with US and Israeli air strikes that killed the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other senior Iranian leaders.
Iran has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz by launching air strikes at cargo ships in the waterway.
Further complicating the situation, Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen entered the fray over the weekend by launching missiles toward Israel, including a third salvo early on March 30.
The choking of cargo through the Strait of Hormuz has boosted the price of benchmark crude oil more than 55 percent in March. In early afternoon European trade, Brent crude was up another 2 percent at $114.85 a barrel.
In a sign of how deep the crisis is running, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters in a WhatsApp chat on March 30 that Kyiv was ready to reciprocate if Russia stops attacking Ukraine’s energy system.
“Recently, following such a severe global energy crisis, we have indeed received signals from some of our partners about how to reduce our responses in the oil sector and the energy sector of the Russian Federation,” he said in the chat.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) confirmed the death of commander Alireza Tangsiri in an Israeli air strike last week.
The IRGC’s Sepah News website said on March 30, five days after Israel reported the death, that Admiral Alireza Tangsiri “succumbed to severe injuries” from the attack.
Israel had said the commander was killed in a strike in Bandar Abbas, a key southern port city on the Strait of Hormuz.
The IRGC did not provide further details in the statement about Tangsiri’s death or his possible successor.
In June 2019, the US Treasury Department designated Tangsiri as a “specially designated global terrorist.”
The IRGC navy coexists with Iran’s regular naval forces and specializes in “guerrilla” warfare, often using fast-attack boats, in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz.
