WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump has pushed back a deadline from Monday to Tuesday for Iran to cut the deal or open the Strait of Hormuz, the latest of several deadline delays, and threatened that without a deal “hell will reign over them.”
Trump’s previous deadline was for March 23, but that changed several times in the coming weeks as Trump, between repeated threats, announced delays and announced that talks were going well, sometimes in the same statement.
Iran rejected the latest ceasefire proposal, the country’s state-run IRNA news agency reported on Monday. Soon after, Trump issued an ominous warning to Iran if it did not capitulate and suggested that an 8pm deadline on Tuesday would be the deadline.
“They have no bridges. They have no power plants. They have nothing,” he said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned the US that attacks on civilian infrastructure are prohibited under international law, according to his spokesman. Speaking to reporters, Trump said he was “not at all concerned” about such attacks committing war crimes.
Here are Trump’s deadlines and threats, and what happened next.
Ultimatum on reopening the Straits of Hormuz
On March 21, Trump posted on Truth Social that if Iran “does not fully open the Strait of Hormuz, without threat, within 48 hours, the United States will strike and destroy their various power plants.”
Iran had until the evening of March 23.
Then 12 hours before the deadline, Trump took to Truth Social to share the good news: that the two countries had engaged in productive talks to conclude the conflict.
“I have directed the War Department to suspend for a period of five days any and all military strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure,” he wrote, noting the success of the discussion.
This pushed the deadline to the end of that week.
A threat to target desalinization plants
Before the deadline, on March 26, Trump doubled down on his threat on Truth Social: “They get serious soon, before it’s too late, because once it happens, there’s no going back, and it won’t be good!”
But later that day, he extended the deadline for another 10 days, April 6 at 8 p.m., and said on Truth Social that the talks were “going very well.”
On March 30, Trump put out a mixed statement: celebrating progress in talks with Iran and extending his threat of bombing if a deal “isn’t reached soon,” adding that “it probably will.”
“We will end our beloved ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely destroying all their power generating plants, oil wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!”), he wrote.
It’s unclear how soon “arrived soon” meant to Trump, but a deal was not reached as the deadline neared.
An explosives-laden threat to attack power plants and bridges
“Remember when I gave Iran ten days to make a deal or open the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Saturday, “time is running out â 48 hours before all hell will reign over them.”
As the deadline neared, his posts doubled down on his threats until Sunday, when Trump pushed the deadline again with an expletive-laden post.
“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped into one, in Iran. There will be no such thing!!! Fââ-in’ straight, you crazy bastards, or you’ll live in hell,” Trump said on Truth Social, followed by another post due at 8 p.m.
Trump then suggested on Monday that Tuesday’s deadline would be the last, saying he had already given Iran a substantial extension.
“The whole country could be taken out overnight, and that night could be tomorrow night,” Trump said. “Because of the strength of our army, we have a plan, where every bridge in Iran will be destroyed by 12 midnight tomorrow.”
What will happen to diplomacy with Iran?
The head of Iran’s diplomatic mission in Cairo, Mojtaba Ferdowsi Pour, said Iran no longer trusts the Trump administration after the US bombed the Islamic Republic twice during the previous round of talks.
“We accept the end of the war only with a guarantee that we will not attack again,” he told The Associated Press.
A regional official involved in the talks said the efforts have not failed. Speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door diplomacy, he said, ‘We are still talking to both sides.
On an Israeli TV station, Channel 13, the evening newscast showed a large digital clock counting down the hours and minutes to Tuesday’s deadline.
