US will ‘obliterate’ Iran’s power plants if it doesn’t open Strait of Hormuz: Trump

Agency

DUBAI: President Donald Trump warned the US will “obliterate” Iran’s power plants if it doesn’t fully open the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours, prompting Tehran to say it would respond to any such strike with attacks on US and Israeli energy and infrastructure assets.
Iranian missiles, meanwhile, struck two communities in southern Israel late Saturday, leaving buildings shattered and dozens injured in dual attacks not far from Israel’s main nuclear research centre.
The developments signalled the war was moving in a dangerous new direction at the start of its fourth week.
Trump – who is facing increasing pressure at home to secure the strait as oil prices soar – issued the ultimatum in a social media post while he spent the weekend at his Florida home.
The death toll from the war has risen to more than 1,500 people in Iran, more than 1,000 people in Lebanon, 15 in Israel and 13 US military members, as well as a number of civilians on land and sea in the Gulf region. Millions of people in Lebanon and Iran have been displaced.
Rachel VanLandingham, a professor at Southwestern Law School, says plants that are confirmed to be dual-use – meaning they also benefit the military – can be targeted only if the strategic advantage outweighs the harm it causes to civilians.
Causing excessive suffering to civilians makes it a war crime under international law, said VanLandingham, a retired lieutenant colonel in the US Air Force who served chief legal adviser for international law at US Central Command.
Trump said on Saturday that he would give Iran 48 hours to open the vital Strait of Hormuz or face a new round of attacks. He said the US would destroy “various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!”
VanLandingham said: “It could be lawful, but the way he said it sounds awful because he doesn’t provide any kind of nuance.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was noncommittal when asked about Trump’s threats to strike Iran’s power plants if the Strait of Hormuz isn’t opened, and whether Israel would join.
“I think President Trump knows exactly what he’s doing. And whatever we do we do together and as far as possible in confidence,” Netanyahu Israeli prime minister said Sunday.
A warning from US President Donald Trump that the United States will “obliterate” Iran’s power plants if Tehran fails to fully open the Strait of Hormuz in 48 hours underscores how the small strip of water is a vital artery of the world economy.
On a typical day, ships carrying about a fifth of the world’s oil sail out of the Persian Gulf through the narrow passageway between Iran and Oman toward the Indian Ocean.
The war with Iran means it’s effectively closed, hemming in more than 90 per cent of that crude and refined products, according to the International Energy Agency.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said missile attacks on Israeli cities, near Jerusalem’s holy sites, and toward a UK military base in the Indian Ocean, along with the near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz, are all evidence that Iran is a threat to the world.
“Israel and the United States are working together for the entire world,” Netanyahu said in the southern town of Arad, which was hit by an Iranian missile, wounding dozens of people.
“It’s time to see the leaders of the rest of the countries join us.” he told to foreign journalists.
Netanyahu claimed that some are “beginning to move in that direction” but more are needed.
Qatar’s Interior Ministry says rescuers found the body of a seventh person who initially had been missing.
The Defence Ministry said four Qatari forces and three Turkish nationals – including a military officer and two civilians – were on board the helicopter that crashed Saturday in Qatari territorial waters.
All seven people on board have now been accounted for.
Defence Minister Boris Pistorius says joint efforts to secure trade routes through the Strait of Hormuz can come only after a ceasefire is achieved.
Pistorius urged Iran to ensure freedom and safe passage in the strait.
He made the comments Sunday during a trip to Japan for talks with his Japanese counterpart, Shinjiro Koizumi.
Dozens of people were wounded and several buildings were heavily damaged in the strike in the southern town of Arad.
Netanyahu says it was a “miracle” that no one was killed by the blast. He said that if all residents had rushed to shelters, no one would have been hurt.
Netanyahu urged all Israelis to heed warnings and rush into shelters as soon as they hear a siren.
Abbas Araghchi called on “independent nations” to pressure both the US and Israel to stop their war against Iran.
The top Iranian diplomat says any efforts to end the war should include “guarantees” that the US and Israel won’t once again attack the Islamic Republic, according to the state-run news agency IRNA.
Iran needs guarantees that its “sovereignty and national security won’t be violated again,” according to IRNA.
Araghchi’s comments came in a phone call Saturday with Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the news agency said.
Dr. Roy Kessous, deputy director of the Soroka Medical Centre in the southern city of Beersheba, has said injuries from the two strikes late Saturday included shrapnel wounds as well as trauma.
Kessous says the hospital is trained for such events, but the scale – including entire families wounded together and in some cases left homeless – added to the pressure.
He said the hospital already is prepared for a similar emergency, telling The Associated Press: “We are ready to receive wounded from the area again right now.”
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz expanded the military’s list of targets in Lebanon to include all bridges over the country’s Litani River, a focal point of the renewed Israel-Hezbollah conflict.
Katz on Sunday accused Lebanon’s Iran-backed militant group of using the crossings over the waterway, about 30 kilometres (18.5 miles) north of Israel’s border, to move fighters and weapons into southern Lebanon.
Katz also ordered the military to accelerate its destruction of Lebanese homes near Israel’s northern border “to eliminate threats to Israeli communities.”
After Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel earlier this month, the Israeli military launched an offensive that Lebanese authorities say have killed over 1,000 people and displaced over 1 million. Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets and drones into Israel.
The British government is downplaying concerns that Iranian missiles could hit Europe, but won’t say how close they came to striking a UK-US military base almost 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) from Iran.
The attempt toward the Diego Garcia base overnight Thursday to Friday suggests that Tehran has missiles that can go farther than previously acknowledged – or that it had used its space program for an improvised launch.
Officials confirmed the attempt on Saturday.
The Israel Defence Forces said it shows that Iran has missiles that could reach European capitals.
British Cabinet minister Steve Reed said one missile was intercepted and the other “fell short,” without specifying.
He told the BBC the government has “no specific assessment” that Iran is seeking to target Europe, “let alone that they could if they tried.”
The Lebanese militant group said it was behind a rocket salvo that struck a car and killed one person in the town of Misgav Am.
The Israeli military said a civilian was killed in what “seemed to be” a rocket attack. Israeli medics said they found the man dead in his car and released a video showing two vehicles ablaze.
Hezbollah claimed it targeted a gathering of Israeli soldiers with rockets.
It marks the first death in Israel from a Hezbollah rocket strike since Iran-backed Shiite militant group fired at Israel earlier this month in support of Iran’s war with Israel and the United States.
Two Israeli soldiers have been killed in ground fighting with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon this month.
Traffic at supermarkets in Tehran has surged on the second day of Iran’s new year. It comes after US President Donald Trump threatened to target more sites in Iran.
A 53-year-old grocery store staffer told The Associated Press that “demand is very high” for water – as it was in the early days of the three-week-old war. Demand for bread has also increased.
A 22-year-old delivery driver said: “Since I started work this morning, about 90 per cent of my deliveries have been water.”
They spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear for their safety.
The Persian Gulf country says its air defence systems were responding to missile and drone attacks from Iran.
The Defence Ministry said two missiles and two drones were launched at the kingdom island, which hosts the US 5th Fleet.
It said a total of 145 missiles and 146 drones have now been fired at Shiite-majority Bahrain since the start of the war.