\n\t\t\t\t\t\tPresident Donald Trump on Monday threatened widespread destruction of Iran\u2019s energy resources and other vital infrastructure if a deal to end the war with Tehran is not reached soon.In a social media post, Trump said \u201cgreat progress is being made\u201d in talks with Iran to end military operations but bristled that if a deal is not reached and if the strategic Hormuz Strait is not immediately reopened, the U.S. would broaden its offensive by \u201ccompletely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!).\u201dOn the ground, the war showed no sign of letting up: Tehran struck a key water and electrical plant in Kuwait, and an oil refinery in Israel came under attack. Israel and the U.S. launched a new wave of strikes on Iran.Trump\u2019s social media post and earlier comments in an interview with the Financial Times that suggested American troops could seize the country\u2019s Kharg Island export hub highlight how he has repeatedly said that talks with Iran are ongoing \u2014 and even going well \u2014 though Tehran denies negotiating directly. But at the same time, he has continually ramped up his threats, as thousands more Marines and other U.S. troops pour into the Middle East.It remains unclear where the diplomatic effort facilitated by Pakistan stands. Iran\u2019s attacks on its Gulf neighbors could add another element of uncertainty to any talks. The United Arab Emirates \u2014 which has long billed itself as a beacon of safety and stability in a volatile region \u2014 has been hard hit in the war, and increasingly is signaling it wants Iran disarmed in any ceasefire. Iran\u2019s theocracy likely won\u2019t accept that.Trump says diplomacy is going well but suggests military expansion is possibleIn the interview with the FT, Trump said his preference would be to \u201ctake the oil in Iran\u201d \u2014 a move that would require seizing Kharg Island \u2014 the terminal through which nearly all of Iran\u2019s oil exports pass.\u201cMaybe we take Kharg Island, maybe we don\u2019t,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe have a lot of options.\u201dAlso in the interview, Trump said that the U.S. had about 3,000 targets that it would still like to hit in Iran, but adding: \u201cA deal could be made fairly quickly.\u201dTrump told reporters aboard Air Force One late Sunday that the U.S. was negotiating \u201cdirectly and indirectly\u201d with Iran.\u201cWe\u2019re doing extremely well in that negotiation but you never know with Iran because we negotiate with them and then we always have to blow them up,\u201d Trump said.Twice during Trump\u2019s second term, the U.S. has attacked Iran while in the middle of negotiations, once with the strikes on Feb. 28 that started the current war and also in June.Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei on Monday acknowledged Tehran had been given a 15-point proposal from the Trump administration, but said there had been no direct negotiations with Washington so far.Earlier, Iran\u2019s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, dismissed the talks in Pakistan as a cover to get more U.S. troops into the area. He said Iranian forces were \u201cwaiting for the arrival of American troops on the ground to set them on fire and punish their regional partners forever,\u201d according to state media.The U.S. already launched airstrikes once that targeted military positions on Kharg. Iran has threatened to launch its own ground invasion of Gulf Arab countries and mine the Persian Gulf if U.S. troops land on its territory.To get an amphibious invasion force to Kharg would mean transiting the Strait of Hormuz and most of the Persian Gulf. Experts say that holding the island would also be a challenge, because in addition to its missiles and drones, it would be well within artillery range from the Iranian mainland.W2lmcmFtZSBzcmM9Imh0dHBzOi8vaGVhcnN0dGVsZXZpc2lvbmRhdGFqb3VybmFsaXNtLmh0dmFwcHMuY29tL2p1eHRhcG9zZS1pbWFnZS9zdHJhaXQtb2YtaG9ybXV6L3Rlc3QzL2p1eHRhcG9zZS5odG1sIiBmcmFtZWJvcmRlcj0iMCIgaGVpZ2h0PSI1MDBweCIgd2lkdGg9IjEwMCUiIHNjcm9sbGluZyA9ICJubyJdWy9pZnJhbWVdIran launches attacks on Israel and hits more infrastructure targets in Gulf statesSirens sounded at dawn near Israel’s main nuclear research center, a part of the country that has been targeted repeatedly in recent days. Israel’s military also said it had taken out two drones launched from Yemen, where the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels entered the war on Saturday with their first missile attack.Later, a fire broke out at an oil refinery in the northern city of Haifa, one of only two in Israel, either from a missile strike or from debris falling from an interception. The blaze was quickly extinguished.Iran kept up the pressure on its Gulf Arab neighbors, as Saudi Arabia intercepted five missiles targeting its oil-rich Eastern province, Bahrain sounded a missile alert, and a fireball erupted over Dubai as an incoming missile was taken out by defenses.In Kuwait, an Iranian attack hit a power and desalination plant, killing one worker and injuring 10 soldiers, the state-run KUNA news agency reported.Video above: Trump extends Iran deadline, says Hormuz \u2018present\u2019 proves talks are progressingDesalination plants are crucial to water supplies in the Gulf Arab states, and an Iranian attack previously damaged a desalination plant in Bahrain during the war. The facilities are typically paired with power plants, because of the large amount of energy required to remove salt from the water to make it drinkable.Israel\u2019s military launched a new wave of attacks on Iran, saying it was striking \u201cmilitary infrastructure\u201d across Tehran, and explosions were heard in the Iranian capital. Iranian state media reported a petrochemicals plant in Tabriz, in the north, sustained damage after an airstrike and firefighters had to put out a blaze.Iran confirmed on Monday that the head of the Revolutionary Guard\u2019s navy, Rear Adm. Alireza Tangsiri, had been killed in an Israeli airstrike, as Israel claimed last week.In Lebanon, which Israel has invaded by ground, an Indonesian peacekeeper was killed and three others were wounded when a projectile exploded near a village in the south.Over the weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military will widen its invasion, expanding the \u201cexisting security strip\u201d in that country\u2019s south as it targets the Iran-linked Hezbollah militant group.In Iran, authorities say more than 1,900 people have been killed, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel.Two dozen people have been killed In Gulf states and the occupied West Bank. In Lebanon, officials said more than 1,200 people have been killed, and more than 1 million have been displaced.Six Israeli soldiers have died in Lebanon, while 13 U.S. service members have been killed in the war.Oil prices rise again as concerns of global energy crisis growIran’s attacks on the energy infrastructure of the region and its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped in peacetime, has sent oil prices skyrocketing and given rise to growing concerns about a global energy crisis.In early trading, the spot price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, was around $115, up nearly 60% from when the U.S. and Israel started the war with attacks on Iran on Feb. 28.As pressure has grown on Trump to bring an end to the conflict, the U.S. has presented Iran a 15-point plan that includes it agreeing to open the Strait of Hormuz to shipping. Iran, meantime, has produced a five-point plan with its own terms, including maintaining its sovereignty over the key waterway.___Rising reported from Bangkok. Associated Press writers Darlene Superville aboard Air Force One, Melanie Lidman, Tel Aviv, Israel, Giovanna Dell’Orto in Miami, Florida and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this story.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tDUBAI, United Arab Emirates \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump on Monday threatened widespread destruction of Iran\u2019s energy resources and other vital infrastructure if a deal to end the war with Tehran is not reached soon.<\/p>\n
In a social media post, Trump said \u201cgreat progress is being made\u201d in talks with Iran to end military operations but bristled that if a deal is not reached and if the strategic Hormuz Strait is not immediately reopened, the U.S. would broaden its offensive by \u201ccompletely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!).\u201d<\/p>\n
On the ground, the war showed no sign of letting up: Tehran struck a key water and electrical plant in Kuwait, and an oil refinery in Israel came under attack. Israel and the U.S. launched a new wave of strikes on Iran.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s social media post and earlier comments in an interview with the Financial Times that suggested American troops could seize the country\u2019s Kharg Island export hub highlight how he has repeatedly said that talks with Iran are ongoing \u2014 and even going well \u2014 though Tehran denies negotiating directly. But at the same time, he has continually ramped up his threats, as thousands more Marines and other U.S. troops pour into the Middle East.<\/p>\n
It remains unclear where the diplomatic effort facilitated by Pakistan stands. Iran\u2019s attacks on its Gulf neighbors could add another element of uncertainty to any talks. The United Arab Emirates \u2014 which has long billed itself as a beacon of safety and stability in a volatile region \u2014 has been hard hit in the war, and increasingly is signaling it wants Iran disarmed in any ceasefire. Iran\u2019s theocracy likely won\u2019t accept that.<\/p>\n
Trump says diplomacy is going well but suggests military expansion is possible<\/p>\n
In the interview with the FT, Trump said his preference would be to \u201ctake the oil in Iran\u201d \u2014 a move that would require seizing Kharg Island \u2014 the terminal through which nearly all of Iran\u2019s oil exports pass.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe we take Kharg Island, maybe we don\u2019t,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe have a lot of options.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also in the interview, Trump said that the U.S. had about 3,000 targets that it would still like to hit in Iran, but adding: \u201cA deal could be made fairly quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One late Sunday that the U.S. was negotiating \u201cdirectly and indirectly\u201d with Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re doing extremely well in that negotiation but you never know with Iran because we negotiate with them and then we always have to blow them up,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
Twice during Trump\u2019s second term, the U.S. has attacked Iran while in the middle of negotiations, once with the strikes on Feb. 28 that started the current war and also in June.<\/p>\n
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei on Monday acknowledged Tehran had been given a 15-point proposal from the Trump administration, but said there had been no direct negotiations with Washington so far.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Iran\u2019s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, dismissed the talks in Pakistan as a cover to get more U.S. troops into the area. He said Iranian forces were \u201cwaiting for the arrival of American troops on the ground to set them on fire and punish their regional partners forever,\u201d according to state media.<\/p>\n
The U.S. already launched airstrikes once that targeted military positions on Kharg. Iran has threatened to launch its own ground invasion of Gulf Arab countries and mine the Persian Gulf if U.S. troops land on its territory.<\/p>\n
To get an amphibious invasion force to Kharg would mean transiting the Strait of Hormuz and most of the Persian Gulf. Experts say that holding the island would also be a challenge, because in addition to its missiles and drones, it would be well within artillery range from the Iranian mainland.<\/p>\n
Iran launches attacks on Israel and hits more infrastructure targets in Gulf states<\/p>\n
Sirens sounded at dawn near Israel’s main nuclear research center, a part of the country that has been targeted repeatedly in recent days. Israel’s military also said it had taken out two drones launched from Yemen, where the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels entered the war on Saturday with their first missile attack.<\/p>\n
Later, a fire broke out at an oil refinery in the northern city of Haifa, one of only two in Israel, either from a missile strike or from debris falling from an interception. The blaze was quickly extinguished.<\/p>\n
Iran kept up the pressure on its Gulf Arab neighbors, as Saudi Arabia intercepted five missiles targeting its oil-rich Eastern province, Bahrain sounded a missile alert, and a fireball erupted over Dubai as an incoming missile was taken out by defenses.<\/p>\n
In Kuwait, an Iranian attack hit a power and desalination plant, killing one worker and injuring 10 soldiers, the state-run KUNA news agency reported.<\/p>\n
Video above: Trump extends Iran deadline, says Hormuz \u2018present\u2019 proves talks are progressing<\/p>\n
Desalination plants are crucial to water supplies in the Gulf Arab states, and an Iranian attack previously damaged a desalination plant in Bahrain during the war. The facilities are typically paired with power plants, because of the large amount of energy required to remove salt from the water to make it drinkable.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s military launched a new wave of attacks on Iran, saying it was striking \u201cmilitary infrastructure\u201d across Tehran, and explosions were heard in the Iranian capital. Iranian state media reported a petrochemicals plant in Tabriz, in the north, sustained damage after an airstrike and firefighters had to put out a blaze.<\/p>\n
Iran confirmed on Monday that the head of the Revolutionary Guard\u2019s navy, Rear Adm. Alireza Tangsiri, had been killed in an Israeli airstrike, as Israel claimed last week.<\/p>\n
In Lebanon, which Israel has invaded by ground, an Indonesian peacekeeper was killed and three others were wounded when a projectile exploded near a village in the south.<\/p>\n
Over the weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military will widen its invasion, expanding the \u201cexisting security strip\u201d in that country\u2019s south as it targets the Iran-linked Hezbollah militant group.<\/p>\n
In Iran, authorities say more than 1,900 people have been killed, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel.<\/p>\n
Two dozen people have been killed In Gulf states and the occupied West Bank. In Lebanon, officials said more than 1,200 people have been killed, and more than 1 million have been displaced.<\/p>\n
Six Israeli soldiers have died in Lebanon, while 13 U.S. service members have been killed in the war.<\/p>\n
Oil prices rise again as concerns of global energy crisis grow<\/p>\n
Iran’s attacks on the energy infrastructure of the region and its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped in peacetime, has sent oil prices skyrocketing and given rise to growing concerns about a global energy crisis.<\/p>\n
In early trading, the spot price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, was around $115, up nearly 60% from when the U.S. and Israel started the war with attacks on Iran on Feb. 28.<\/p>\n
As pressure has grown on Trump to bring an end to the conflict, the U.S. has presented Iran a 15-point plan that includes it agreeing to open the Strait of Hormuz to shipping. Iran, meantime, has produced a five-point plan with its own terms, including maintaining its sovereignty over the key waterway.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Rising reported from Bangkok. Associated Press writers Darlene Superville aboard Air Force One, Melanie Lidman, Tel Aviv, Israel, Giovanna Dell’Orto in Miami, Florida and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump on Monday threatened widespread destruction of Iran\u2019s energy resources and other vital infrastructure if a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[84,18091,1872,10512,5695,1502,4777,1826,714,100,102,34,37,2601,35,93,179,5625,882,261,650,18090,39,1173,1219,101,14029,392,9345,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-43185","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-persian-gulf","8":"tag-attack","9":"tag-attack-monday","10":"tag-brent-crude","11":"tag-ceasefire-talks","12":"tag-desalination-plant","13":"tag-dhnd","14":"tag-energy-infrastructure","15":"tag-global-energy-crisis","16":"tag-gulf-states","17":"tag-hezbollah","18":"tag-hormuz","19":"tag-iran","20":"tag-israel","21":"tag-kharg-island","22":"tag-kuwait","23":"tag-lebanon","24":"tag-military","25":"tag-military-attacks","26":"tag-oil-price","27":"tag-oil-prices","28":"tag-pakistan","29":"tag-pakistan-talks","30":"tag-persian-gulf","31":"tag-revolutionary-guard","32":"tag-strait","33":"tag-strait-of-hormuz","34":"tag-talk","35":"tag-trump","36":"tag-u-s-marines","37":"tag-war"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116318947508569689","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43185","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=43185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}