{"id":31144,"date":"2026-03-22T16:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T16:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/31144\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T16:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T16:32:09","slug":"iran-threatens-to-close-strait-of-hormuz-and-hit-power-plants-after-trumps-48-hour-ultimatum-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/31144\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran threatens to close Strait of Hormuz and hit power plants after Trump’s 48-hour ultimatum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ARAD, Israel (AP) \u2014 Iran and the allied Lebanese militant group Hezbollah stepped up attacks on Israel on Sunday as the United States and Iran threatened<\/a> to target critical infrastructure in the war in the Middle East<\/a>, now in its fourth week.<\/p>\n

Iran said the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, crucial to oil and other exports, would be “completely closed\u201d immediately if the U.S. follows up on President Donald Trump<\/a> ‘s new threat to attack its power plants. Trump late Saturday set a 48-hour deadline to open the strait. Iran\u2019s parliament speaker said Tehran also would retaliate against U.S. and Israeli energy and wider infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Israeli leaders visited one of two southern communities near a secretive nuclear research site struck by Iranian missiles late Saturday, with scores of people wounded. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> said it was a \u201cmiracle\u201d no one was killed.<\/p>\n

He also claimed Israel and the U.S. were well on their way to achieving their war goals and asked the world for more support. The aims have ranged from weakening Iran’s nuclear program, missile program and support for armed proxies to enabling the Iranian people to overthrow the theocracy.<\/p>\n

The developments signaled the war, which the U.S. and Israel launched Feb. 28, was moving in a dangerous new direction, despite Trump’s comment last week he was considering \u201cwinding down” operations. It has killed over 2,000 people, rattled the global economy and sent oil prices surging.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah claimed responsibility for an airstrike that killed a man in northern Israel, while Lebanese President Joseph Aoun called Israel’s targeting of bridges in the south \u201ca prelude to a ground invasion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Energy and desalination plants are threatened<\/p>\n

Iran has practically closed the Strait of Hormuz that connects the Persian Gulf to the rest of the world. Roughly one-fifth of global oil supply<\/a> passes through it, but attacks on ships<\/a> and threats of further strikes have stopped nearly all tanker traffic. Some of the largest oil producers have made cuts because their crude has nowhere to go.<\/p>\n

The U.S. and its allies in Europe and Asia rely heavily on the oil to meet energy demand. In its most recent attempt to relieve pressure on energy prices, the U.S. has lifted some sanctions on Iranian oil at sea.<\/p>\n

Trump said if Iran didn’t open the strait, the U.S. would destroy its \u201cvarious POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. has argued that Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard controls much of the country\u2019s infrastructure and uses it to power the war effort.<\/p>\n

Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf responded on X that if Iran’s power plants and infrastructure are targeted, then vital infrastructure across the region \u2014 including energy and desalination facilities<\/a> \u2014 would be considered legitimate targets and \u201cirreversibly destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Story Continues <\/p>\n

Under international law, power plants that benefit civilians can be targeted only if the military advantage outweighs the suffering it causes to civilians, legal scholars say.<\/p>\n

Separately, Iranian officials said they would keep providing safe passage through the strait to vessels from countries other than its enemies.<\/p>\n

Strikes in Israel and Iran bring new nuclear concerns<\/p>\n

Iran said its strikes in the Negev Desert late Saturday were in retaliation for an earlier attack on Iran\u2019s main nuclear enrichment site<\/a> in Natanz, according to state-run media.<\/p>\n

Tehran praised the attack as a show of strength, even as Israel’s military asserts that Iranian missile launches have gradually decreased in frequency since the war began.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the Israeli regime is unable to intercept missiles in the heavily protected Dimona area, it is, operationally, a sign of entering a new phase of the battle,\u201d Qalibaf said.<\/p>\n

Southern Israel\u2019s main hospital received at least 175 wounded from Arad and Dimona, its deputy director Roy Kessous told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

Israel is widely believed to possess<\/a> nuclear weapons, though it doesn\u2019t confirm or deny their existence. The U.N. nuclear watchdog said on X it had not received reports of damage to the Israeli center or abnormal radiation levels.<\/p>\n

Israel denied responsibility for hitting Natanz on Saturday, while the Iranian judiciary\u2019s official news agency, Mizan, said there was no leakage. The Pentagon declined to comment on the strike.<\/p>\n

The International Atomic Energy Agency has said the bulk of Iran\u2019s estimated 972 pounds (441 kilograms) of enriched uranium is elsewhere, beneath the rubble at its Isfahan facility.<\/p>\n

Iran says strikes also hit a hospital<\/p>\n

Iran said strikes hit a hospital in Andimeshk. Its health ministry said patients and doctors were evacuated to another city.<\/p>\n

Iran’s death toll in the war has surpassed 1,500, state media reported Saturday, citing the ministry. In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian strikes. More than a dozen civilians in the occupied West Bank and Gulf Arab states have been killed in strikes.<\/p>\n

A Qatari military helicopter crash on Saturday, blamed on a technical malfunction, killed all seven aboard, Qatari authorities said.<\/p>\n

Hezbollah strike on northern Israel claims first fatality there<\/p>\n

An Israeli civilian was killed in his car in the northern town of Misgav Am in what Israel’s military said appeared to be a rocket attack. Israeli authorities identified him as 61-year-old farmer Ofer \u201cPoshko\u201d Moskovitz.<\/p>\n

Two days ago, Moskovitz told a radio station that living near the Lebanese border was like \u201cRussian roulette.”<\/p>\n

Hezbollah launched strikes on Israel soon after the war began, calling it retaliation for the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei<\/a>. Israel then targeted Hezbollah in deadly airstrikes and expanded its ground presence in southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n

Israel on Sunday expanded its target list to include bridges over the Litani River that Defense Minister Israel Katz said Hezbollah is using to move fighters and weapons into the south. Israel later struck the Qasmiyeh bridge near Tyre, giving an hour’s warning. Destroying bridges further isolates residents from the rest of Lebanon.<\/p>\n

Katz also ordered the military to accelerate its destruction of Lebanese homes near the border.<\/p>\n

Lebanese authorities say Israel’s strikes have killed more than 1,000 people and displaced more than 1 million. Meanwhile, Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank, and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writers Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel; Koral Saeed in Abu Snan, Israel; and Isabel Debre in Beirut contributed.<\/p>\n

Alon Bernstein, Sam Metz And Samy Magdy, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARAD, Israel (AP) \u2014 Iran and the allied Lebanese militant group Hezbollah stepped up attacks on Israel on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[28],"tags":[5530,100,102,34,37,2509,14208,864,101],"class_list":["post-31144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-strait-of-hormuz","tag-desalination-plants","tag-hezbollah","tag-hormuz","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-northern-israel","tag-power-plants","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-strait-of-hormuz"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116273790555549552","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}