Iran War Live Updates: Trump Issues Grave Threats as Hormuz Deadline Draws Closer 51%
By Ravi Mattu0% Tyler Pager0% Farnaz Fassihi0%
4/7/2026, 7:09:59 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 41 faulty reasoning types, including Ambiguity (Equivocation), Appeal to Authority, and Recency Bias, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 16.1% saturation with 765 hits. Analysis detected 5,904 faulty-reasoning hits from 4,745 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 50.6% and a BS Rank of 51% (8,334 of 16,813 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 50.40% of the article peer group.
President Trump threatened to wipe out a “whole civilization” on Tuesday, hours before his deadline for Iran to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face a wave of strikes on critical infrastructure.
Mr.
Trump issued the grave warning in a post on social media as Israel and Iran launched a new round of attacks in the Middle East.
The increasingly incendiary threats and intense fighting reinforced the fragile state of diplomacy, with no public signs of a diplomatic breakthrough to end the war.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” the American president wrote, adding that he hoped “maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen” to avoid the attacks.
“We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World.”
Mr.
Trump has set a deadline of 8 p.m.
Eastern time for Iran to end its effective blockade of the strait, saying on Monday that otherwise every bridge in the country would be “decimated,” and every power plant would be “out of business.”
Striking civilian infrastructure could amount to a war crime under international law.
Ebrahim Zolfaghari, a spokesman for the Iranian military, has said that Iran would retaliate “crushingly and extensively” if its civilian infrastructure were attacked.
Some Iranians were bracing for the possibility of more attacks, while others were responding to the American threats with a mix of indifference, defiance, and bewilderment.
“I think Trump is under a lot of pressure and that he has lost his mind,” said Lili, a Tehran resident who asked not to use her full name out of concern for repercussions for speaking to foreign media.
She and her family were not planning to flee the city, she added, because there was nowhere to go.
The spate of strikes on Tuesday added to the anxiety and uncertainty, with the Israeli military saying it had launched airstrikes on Iranian government infrastructure and warned people in Iran to avoid traveling by train until 9 p.m. local time.
At least three people were killed and three others were injured when a strike hit a railway bridge in the central city of Kashan, Iranian state media reported.
Iranian media outlets also reported attacks on bridges in other parts of the country.
Iran targeted energy facilities in Persian Gulf countries allied with the United States.
Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry said that debris from an intercepted missile had fallen near energy facilities in the east and that the damage was being assessed.
The United Arab Emirates’ defense ministry said missiles and drones had been fired from Iran.
Negotiations between Iran and the United States have been mediated by Pakistan and other regional allies, which have proposed a 45-day cease-fire.
Mr.
Trump said the plan was a “significant step” but that it was “not good enough,” and Iran rejected any proposal for a truce.
On Monday, Iran delivered a separate 10-point plan to end the war to the United States and Israel through Pakistan, according to Iranian state media, but it appeared unlikely to resolve major differences between the warring parties ahead of Mr.
Trump’s deadline.
Here’s what else we’re covering:
Oil prices: Oil prices initially climbed on Tuesday after Mr.
Trump rejected a cease-fire proposal the previous day as “not good enough.”
The price of Brent Crude, the international benchmark, rose 1.5 percent to about $111 a barrel, before falling slightly.
Strait of Hormuz: Britain will host a virtual meeting on Tuesday of military planners from more than 40 countries about how to secure safe passage through the waterway after the war ends.
Pentagon media: The Pentagon canceled a news conference with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Dan Cain, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that was scheduled for Tuesday.
Death tolls: The Human Rights Activists News Agency said at least 1,606 civilians, including 244 children, had been killed in Iran as of Friday.
Lebanon’s health ministry on Thursday said at least 1,345 Lebanese had been killed in the latest fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
In attacks blamed on Iran, at least 50 people have been killed in Gulf nations.
In Israel, at least 20 people had been killed as of Monday.
The American death toll stands at 13 service members, with hundreds of others wounded.
Asked about reports of airstrikes on Kharg island, Iran’s main oil export hub, Vance said that his “understanding” after discussions with top Pentagon officials was that “we were going to strike some military targets on Kharg Island.
I believe we have done so.”
In response to a question about the war, Vice President JD Vance said that the United States had “largely accomplished its military objectives” and that “as the president has said, very shortly this war is going to conclude.”
He added that “the nature of the conclusion is ultimately up to the Iranians.”
Vance, who is in Hungary, described one pathway where Iran strikes a deal.
If there is no deal ahead of President Trump’s Tuesday deadline, “We are going to find out” what happens.
The Iranian authorities said they had suspended train services on two major rail lines -- the Southern and Zagros railways -- until further notice, state media reported on Tuesday.
On Tuesday morning, the Israeli military warned people in Iran to refrain from traveling by train until 9 p.m. local time.
The United States struck military targets on Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export hub, early Tuesday, a White House official said.
The authorities in Sharjah, part of the United Arab Emirates, said they were responding to an incident involving a ballistic missile from Iran, which targeted an administrative building for a telecommunications company.
Two Pakistani nationals sustained moderate injuries and were hospitalized, the Sharjah government’s media office said.
President Trump issued another grave threat to Iran if it does not strike a deal to avert Mr.
Trump’s threat of massive attacks later Tuesday.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that he hoped “maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen” to avoid the attacks before the Tuesday evening deadline.
He continued: “We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World.”
Dozens have gathered under cloudy skies in Yahchouch, a town in Lebanon, for the funeral of Pierre Mouawad, a local official who was killed in a wave of Israeli airstrikes on the capital Beirut on Sunday that killed 39 people.
The killing of Mouawad and his wife, Flavia Murad, has sparked outrage in Lebanon because they were struck in their home in Ain Saadeh, a town in the hills east of Beirut, which is far from areas that Israel has been targeting so far in the war.
Also, Mouawad was an official with the Lebanese Forces, a Christian political party that has long been opposed to the Iran-backed militant group, Hezbollah.
When asked about the killing, an Israeli official said that Mouawad was “definitely not a target,” and that the military was trying to understand the circumstances surrounding the incident.
“This war is a war on all of Lebanon,” Elias Bidran, who was attending the funeral with his wife and son in Yahchouch, said.
“We are very shocked.”
At least three people were killed and three others injured when a strike hit a railway bridge in the central Iranian city of Kashan, Iranian state media reported on Tuesday, citing a local security official.
Iranian media outlets also reported attacks on bridges in several other parts of the country.
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Union’s executive arm, used an award acceptance speech to talk about how the effects of the war in Iran are rippling across Europe.
“We have experienced how quickly geopolitical shocks can be felt in Europe,” she said.
“At petrol stations on the way to work, on the supermarket shelves when we buy our groceries, at our airports.”
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Tuesday that it was willing to widen the scope of its attacks beyond the region if the United States carried out assaults on its civilian facilities.
The statement was carried by state media hours after President Trump reiterated his threat to launch a massive attack on bridges, power plants and other civilian facilities in Iran if the country did not reopen the Strait of Hormuz by Tuesday at 8 p.m.
Eastern time.
Military planners from more than three dozen countries — but not the United States — are expected to meet, in person and virtually, in London on Tuesday to discuss options for securing international shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Officials have said the meeting, organized by Britain, is primarily intended to focus on steps that could be taken after fighting ends between Iran, the United States and Israel.
The Israeli military’s targets in Iran on Monday included a petrochemical facility in the city of Shiraz.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Israeli military said this facility made chemicals used in the production of explosives and materials for ballistic missiles.
Reza Amiri Moghadam, Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan, said on social media Tuesday morning that Pakistani mediation efforts were “approaching a critical, sensitive stage.”
He did not offer details, and wrote: “Stay tuned for more.”
The spokesman for Pakistan’s foreign ministry has refused to comment so far on the possibility of talks between the United States and Iran.
Oil prices pushed higher on Tuesday, in a choppy trade, after President Trump rejected a cease-fire proposal put forth by mediators as “not good enough” and his Tuesday evening deadline for a deal approached.
On Tuesday morning, Mr.
Trump said “a whole civilization will die tonight,” ratcheting up his threats of recent days.
He had said that the United States would target bridges, power plants and other civilian infrastructure if Iran does not agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman that normally carries as much as one-fifth of the world’s oil supply, by Tuesday at 8 p.m.
Eastern time.
The president has extended self-imposed deadlines in recent weeks, but the sharper rhetoric and intensifying threats have put markets on edge as the deadline draws near.
The conflict, now in its sixth week, has caused energy shocks that could drive up the cost of living around the world and deprive vulnerable regions of staples like electricity, clean water and cooking fuel.
Global oil prices move higher.
The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, rose more than 1 percent, to $111 a barrel on Tuesday.
The price has risen around 52 percent since the war began.
West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. oil benchmark, jumped to about $116 a barrel, up more than 3 percent.
W.T.I. usually trades at a lower price than Brent; the gap is partly the result of differences in each oil type’s futures contracts, which are the main means of trading oil.
Since fighting began, tanker traffic exiting the Persian Gulf through the strait has been throttled.
There was, however, a “noticeable uptick” in ships transiting the strait over the weekend, according to Kpler, a global ship-tracking company.
Continued attacks on energy infrastructure, by both Israel and Iran, have raised concerns about longer-lasting damage to the world’s oil and gas supply.
Attacks on energy facilities continued in Iran and throughout the Gulf region on Tuesday.
Stocks are mixed.
Futures trading in the S&P 500 pointed to a lower open when trading resumes in the United States.
Stocks rose slightly in South Korea and Japan on Tuesday.
Markets in Shanghai and Taiwan were also higher, while trading in Hong Kong was closed because of a public holiday.
Major stock markets in Europe were little changed on Tuesday.
The Stoxx 600, a broad European index, was essentially flat.
Gasoline prices continue to rise.
U.S. gas prices rose again on Tuesday, jumping to a national average of $4.14 a gallon, according to the AAA motor club.
The increase has raised the cost for drivers by 39 percent since the war began.
Gas prices don’t move in lock step with crude, usually trailing increases or drops by a few days.
Diesel prices have increased even more quickly and stood at $5.65 on Tuesday, up 50 percent since the start of the war.
What they are saying: When a supply shock evolves into a demand shock
“Rising tensions in the Middle East extend well beyond oil and gas price volatility,” analysts at Allianz wrote in a report on Tuesday.
A “material” share of the world’s aluminum, helium, ammonia, urea and sulfur comes from the Middle East, and a prolonged disruption to commodity shipments from the Gulf “is likely to raise input costs across multiple industries,” they added.
“A renewed supply shock could again evolve into a demand shock,” the Allianz analysts noted, which would echo the pattern in 2022, when energy prices spiked after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Unlike in 2022, a shock this year would come “amid ongoing tensions around grid capacity and efficiency” as A.I. data centers consumer large amounts of power; and “elevated” sensitivity to higher prices by consumers, “suggesting corporates may struggle to pass through costs.”
The Israeli military on Tuesday morning warned people in Iran to refrain from traveling by train anywhere in the country until 9 p.m. local time.
Being on trains or near railway lines would “endanger your lives,” it said in a Farsi-language post on social media.
The United Arab Emirates’ Defense Ministry said it was contending with missile and drone attacks originating from Iran early on Tuesday.
And for the second time since midnight, Bahrain’s Interior Ministry announced that sirens were sounding in the kingdom.
The Iranian Red Crescent Society said in a post on social media early on Tuesday morning that a residential area of the capital, Tehran, had been subjected to an airstrike and that relief workers were at the scene.
The Israeli military said residents could leave protected spaces shortly after announcing that it had detected missiles launching from Iran.
The military provided no additional information, and there were no immediate reports of casualties or impacts from the Israeli emergency rescue service or the country’s public broadcaster.
Ali Ghamsari, an Iranian musician, is staging a sit-in at the Damavand power plant in Tehran, one of Iran’s largest, in response to President Trump’s threat to attack power plants if Iran does not agree to a cease-fire deal by Tuesday night.
In a photo and a video, Ghamsari is shown sitting on a carpet with a blanket and his music instrument, and the power plant in the background.
He said he plans to stay there for a while.
“Today, there is a threat to attack our infrastructures.
The issue is Iran: It’s you.
It’s me.
It’s our families, children, hospitals.
If there is no power, there will be no water,” said Ghamsari in the video, adding that Iranians must unite against threats to their critical infrastructure.
The Israeli military said early on Tuesday morning that it had completed an “airstrike wave” in the Iranian capital, Tehran, and in other parts of Iran, saying details would follow.
Minutes later, the Israeli military said it had detected missiles launched from Iran and sent a precautionary alert to mobile phones of residents in relevant areas.
President Trump said on Monday that a cease-fire proposal put forth by mediators between the United States and Iran was a “significant step,” but he warned that it was “not good enough” as his deadline of Tuesday evening for a deal approached.
Iran, for its part, rejected any proposal for a cease-fire, mandating that any peace plan include a complete end of hostilities.
Diplomatic talks coordinated by Pakistan and other regional countries were continuing, officials said, even as there appeared to be little agreement on what any cessation of hostilities would look like.
If Iran does not agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by Tuesday at 8 p.m.
Eastern time, Mr.
Trump has threatened to launch a massive attack targeting bridges, power plants and other civilian facilities that would, in his words, send Iran “back to the Stone Ages.”
But the president has also extended self-imposed deadlines in recent weeks, and diplomats around the world were asking whether Mr.
Trump would find an off-ramp again or if he would follow through this time with what could be a gigantic conflagration.
“We have a plan, because of the power of our military, where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o’clock tomorrow night, where every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding and never to be used again,” Mr.
Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday afternoon.
“I mean complete demolition by 12 o’clock.”
The White House has refused to answer questions about the specifics of the proposals, saying only that Mr.
Trump was weighing his options.
The president brushed off a question about the possibility that U.S. attacks on Iran’s civilian infrastructure could amount to war crimes.
Iran said it would retaliate forcefully if Mr.
Trump carried out his threatened attacks.
“If attacks on civilian targets are repeated, the subsequent phases of our offensive and retaliatory operations will be carried out much more crushingly and extensively,” Ebrahim Zolfaghari, an Iranian military spokesman, said on Monday.
The president said the United States did not want to go down that route and would consider helping to rebuild Iran if they can strike a deal.
He said the United States was working with an “active, willing participant on the other side.”
“They have till tomorrow,” he said.
“Now we’ll see what happens.
I can tell you they’re negotiating we think in good faith.
We’re going to find out.”
Mr.
Trump said Vice President JD Vance; Steve Witkoff, his special envoy; and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, were all involved in the negotiations.
Mr.
Vance, who is expected to participate in any face-to-face talks if they occur, arrived in Hungary on Tuesday to show support for Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Officials have said he may adjust his trip for negotiations if Iranian officials agreed to meet.
But officials said there was very limited direct contact between the two sides, with Pakistan serving as the key mediator.
Mr.
Trump lamented that one of the main challenges in the negotiations was Iran’s lack of communication.
Pakistan and other regional allies have put forth a proposal for a 45-day cease-fire, but Iran rejected any temporary pause in fighting and White House officials said Mr.
Trump has not signed off on the proposal.
Iran has conveyed to Pakistan its own proposal to end the war consisting of 10 points, according to Iranian state media.
The state news agency IRNA indicated the proposal was made after “the developments over Saturday and Sunday in western and central Iran,” which it described as the “catastrophic failure” of a U.S. operation.
An Air Force officer whose fighter jet had been shot down by Iran was rescued by U.S.
Special Operations forces in a risky mission on Saturday.
Iranian state media has not detailed the entirety of the proposal, but it has noted some conditions or topics that were included.
Among them, it said, was a protocol for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.
It also outlined Iranian demands for lifting sanctions and for reconstruction.
One regional Arab security official involved in the diplomatic exchanges with Iran confirmed that the country was demanding a complete end to hostilities that offered guarantees the war would not be restarted, a complete lifting of sanctions with guarantees ensuring they could not be reinstated and compensation for destruction caused in the war.
Amir Mousawi, a former Iranian diplomat based between Baghdad and Tehran, said Iran also proposed running the Strait of Hormuz “under joint Iranian-Omani administration.”
The Omani Foreign Ministry has confirmed talks with Iran about reopening the strait.
Mr.
Mousawi, who was briefed on the plan, added that it called for formally ending the war through an act approved by Congress, and that it called on the United States to offer war compensation that “must be approved by the U.S.
Congress and the United Nations.”
“These conditions would have to be approved by Congress, and ensuring their implementation must be guaranteed under an international-American umbrella, because they do not trust Trump and his administration,” he said.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs contributed reporting from Washington, Farnaz Fassihi from New York and Adam Rasgon from Tel Aviv.
President Trump intensified his threats to devastate Iranian bridges and power plants if the country did not agree to a cease-fire before Tuesday evening, but he offered few details on what such a deal would achieve beyond restoring oil shipping out of the Persian Gulf — which was open before Mr.
Trump’s war began.
“We have to have a deal that’s acceptable to me,” Mr.
Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday.
“And part of that deal is going to be we want free traffic of oil and everything else.”
Mr.
Trump divulged little about any ongoing cease-fire negotiations, which he said involved Vice President JD Vance.
He closed out the news conference with a warning to Europe: “We want Greenland.
They don’t want to give it to us.”
Trump intensified his threats.
Mr.
Trump made his threats to attack Iran’s civilian infrastructure more explicit, but said he was still open to an agreement with the country’s leaders.
“Every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding and never to be used again,” Mr.
Trump said.
He added: “We don’t want that to happen.
We may even get involved with helping them rebuild their nation.”
Mr.
Trump set a deadline of 8 p.m.
Tuesday, Washington time, for Iran to agree to a cease-fire.
He said Iran “would like to be able to make a deal,” but “I can’t say any more than that.”
He dismissed questions about war crimes.
Mr.
Trump brushed off a question about whether he was worried that bombing bridges and power plants could constitute war crimes.
International law prohibits attacks on civilian objects.
“I hope I don’t have to do it,” Mr.
Trump said.
He then launched into a familiar criticism of his predecessors having been “weak, ineffective and afraid” of Iran.
He has ‘a concept’ for the Strait of Hormuz.
Mr.
Trump has gone back and forth about whether Iran must reopen the Strait of Hormuz as part of any deal, underscoring the strategic quandary for the president as he struggles to restore global oil markets to their prewar status quo.
Responding to a question about whether he would be willing to end the conflict even if Iran is charging tolls for passage through the strait, Mr.
Trump laid out a new ambition: having the United States control the artery out of the Persian Gulf.
He did not explain how that could happen, since the United States does not control the strait.
“We have a concept where we’ll charge tolls,” he said.
He highlighted a daring rescue operation.
Mr.
Trump’s news conference was called ostensibly to highlight the U.S. military’s daring rescue of an Air Force colonel whose fighter jet had been shot down.
At a time when many Americans are expressing uncertainty about the future of the war and concern about fuel prices at home, Mr.
Trump described the rescue in dramatic, and even cinematic, terms.
“You would call it central casting if you were doing a movie for location,” he said of the part of Iran where the airman was stranded, adding, “Those pilots came in so fast and so quick and got out of there.”
The president asked Gen.
Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to reveal more details, including how many people were sent on the rescue mission.
“I’d love to keep that a secret,” General Caine responded.
Turning back to the press, Mr.
Trump said that “it was hundreds.”
He threatened to jail a reporter.
During the news conference, the president became angry with a member of his staff who he claimed had leaked a story about the downed airman to the news media.
He threatened to jail a reporter, whom he did not identify, unless the journalist turned over the identity of the source.
“We’re going to find out,” Mr.
Trump said, adding, “The person that did the story will go to jail if he doesn’t say.”
Mr.
Trump has long pushed for the jailing of reporters who publish leaked information.
Mr.
Trump himself was charged federally with mishandling classified documents he kept upon leaving office.
That case was later dismissed.
He wants to claim Iran’s oil.
Mr.
Trump continued to make Venezuela the model for his vision of how to deal with Iran, particularly his seizure of some of the country’s oil.
“To the victor belong the spoils,” he said, then suggested he would like to return to a world order of centuries past where conquering nations seized resources from the countries they defeated.
“We haven’t heard that in, I think, maybe hundreds of years.”
President Trump on Sunday issued a renewed ultimatum to Iran, threatening once again to bomb its critical energy infrastructure if it did not open the Strait of Hormuz, a major transit route for a fifth of the world’s oil and gas.
“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran.
There will be nothing like it!!!”
Mr.
Trump wrote on social media.
“Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH.”
“Tuesday, 8:00 P.M.
Eastern Time!”
he later added.
It was far from the first time in the past two weeks that Mr.
Trump has threatened Iran’s power plants, which tens of millions of Iranians rely on to power schools, hospitals, residences and other basic aspects of civilian life.
Deliberate attacks on such civilian infrastructure are typically a violation of international humanitarian law, and in many cases can be considered war crimes.
Here is a timeline of the previous deadlines Mr.
Trump has issued to Iran over the Strait of Hormuz:
March 21: In a post on social media, Mr.
Trump declared that if Iran did not “FULLY OPEN” the strait within 48 hours, the United States would “obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!”
Ali Mousavi, Iran’s permanent representative to the International Maritime Organization, said that the strait was “open to everyone” except his country’s enemies.
Other Iranian officials warned that attacks on energy infrastructure would be a direct attack on the Iranian people and that Iran would retaliate in kind.
March 23: Two days after he issued the first threat, Mr.
Trump said that the United States had had “productive” conversations with Iran and that he had ordered the Pentagon to postpone any strikes on Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for five days.
Iranian officials publicly denied that any talks were underway.
March 26: As stocks on Wall Street tanked, Mr.
Trump again postponed his deadline by 10 days, this time to April 6 at 8 p.m.
Eastern time, saying that he was “pausing the period of Energy Plant destruction” at the Iranian government’s request.
March 30: Mr.
Trump claimed that “great progress” had been made in negotiations to end the war.
At the same time, he threatened that if a deal was not reached and the Strait of Hormuz were not “immediately” opened, the United States would destroy all of Iran’s power plants and oil wells, as well as Kharg Island, Iran’s main hub for oil exports, and “possibly all” desalination plants.
April 1: Mr.
Trump said that Iran had asked for a cease-fire, a claim that Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson called “false and baseless,” according to IRIB, the Iranian state news agency.
Mr.
Trump wrote on social media that the United States would consider a cease-fire only when the strait was “open, free and clear.”
He added: “Until then, we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!!”
April 4: Two days before his postponed deadline for Iran to open the strait, Mr.
Trump said that “time is running out — 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them.”
His post came after he made several conflicting statements about the strait in the preceding days, alternately attacking allies for not fighting to reopen it themselves and saying it would reopen naturally.
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