Washington: The United States struck military targets on Iran’s Kharg Island while Israel blew up bridges and railway tracks as the hours tick down to President Donald Trump’s declared deadline for the country to make a deal that includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump also made an extraordinary threat on social media that “a whole civilisation will die tonight” unless the regime in Tehran co-operates, prompting widespread outrage and concern about the level of destruction that could be unleashed on Iran’s infrastructure and population.
But he left the door open to a last-minute reprieve, and in fast-moving developments on Tuesday (US time), several westerners detained by Iran and its regional proxies were released in an apparent gesture of goodwill amid ongoing negotiations.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced two French citizens, Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, had been freed and were returning to France after three-and-a-half years of detention in Iran, and thanked Omani authorities for their mediation efforts.
Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed terrorist group in Iraq, also said it would release American journalist Shelly Kittleson, whom it kidnapped on a Baghdad street last week, on the condition she left Iraq immediately.
It was not immediately clear whether any serious progress in negotiations about the war had been achieved, although US Vice President JD Vance told an audience in Hungary that talks were ongoing, and he hoped Iran would “make the right response”.
Vance and a White House official confirmed the US struck additional military targets on Iran’s Kharg Island, through which about 90 per cent of Iran’s oil exports ordinarily pass. They did not say how many targets had been hit, but reports from US media outlets suggested it was dozens.
Israel also launched fresh attacks on Iranian railway tracks and bridges. In a video statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed the targets were used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to transport weapons and raw materials.
Trump escalated his rhetoric with an incendiary social media post on Tuesday morning (US time) – about 12 hours before his declared 8pm Tuesday (10am Wednesday AEST) deadline for Iran to agree to his demands.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social page.
“However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily [sic] wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS?
“We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!”
There were differing interpretations of Trump’s post, with most experts regarding it as a last-ditch attempt to scare the regime into submission, and many sceptical of whether the tactic would succeed.
Iran’s first vice-president Mohammad Reza Aref said his people would not be intimidated by the US president’s threats. “Our response to the enemy’s brutality is to stand firm and rely on the internal strength of the Iranian nation,” he said, according to Al Jazeera.
The Wall Street Journal reported Iran that had cut off direct talks with the US following Trump’s extraordinary post, citing Middle Eastern officials, although negotiations continued through intermediaries.
Karim Sadjadpour, a senior fellow and Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the president’s threats to destroy Iranian civilisation were a gift to the regime.
“They will alienate even its fiercest opponents, who believe the Islamic Republic has spent decades erasing 2500 years of Iranian civilisation,” he said. “It’s malpractice for the US president to threaten the same.”
Richard Haass, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, said it appeared Trump had learnt little about Iran as these attacks would not lead to capitulation but to retaliation and misery for the region.
Trump’s political opponents – and some allies – slammed his latest online missive. “This is an extremely sick person,” said Chuck Schumer, the leader of the Democrats in the Senate.
“Each Republican who refuses to join us in voting against this wanton war of choice owns every consequence of whatever the hell this is.”
Democratic senator Chris Coons, who is on the Foreign Relations Committee, said it was “barbaric” and a threat to commit a war crime. “This is not how an American president should speak, let alone act,” he said on X.
Stanford Law School professor Tom Dannenbaum said the threat alone could constitute a violation of the US Department of Defence’s manual, which prohibits threats of violence designed to spread terror in the civilian population.
Share markets, which generally react negatively to Trump’s threats to escalate the war, fell in early trading but recovered some of those losses during the day, while the price of Brent crude oil was steady by lunchtime.
Meanwhile, at the United Nations in New York, Russia and China used their veto power to kill off a Security Council resolution aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz, which had been repeatedly watered down in the hope those two countries would abstain.
The United Arab Emirates, which spearheaded the attempt with Bahrain, said it was disappointed but would continue rallying international efforts to reopen the crucial shipping passage.
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Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political reporter in Canberra.Connect via X or email.
