President Donald Trump threatened the death of an entire civilization in a Tuesday morning post on Truth Social, the latest violent warning for the Iranian regime ahead of a deadline for reopening the Strait of Hormuz set to expire at 8 p.m.
Tuesday night may well be “one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World,” he wrote.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” he wrote. “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS?”
The president’s increasingly dire warnings come after he has suggested strikes would hit bridges, desalination plants and energy targets — which could include civilian infrastructure that, if attacked deliberately, could constitute a war crime. Pentagon war planners are revising a list of energy sites, POLITICO previously reported, it can target to include ones that provide fuel for civilians and the military as a likely workaround to avoid war crime accusations.
Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz — a critical waterway for the transit of 20 percent of the world’s oil — soon after the Pentagon began to strike the country in a joint operation with Israel in February.
The president is now conditioning an end to the war on the reopening of the Strait.
