As the world holds its breath while the deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz looms closer, US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, April 7, issued a fresh warning stating that a whole “civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” if Tehran refuses to yield to his demand to agree to a ceasefire and open the Strait of Hormuz at or before the deadline.

”A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. 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?”, Trump wrote on Truth Social Tuesday morning.

The threat comes as the US and Israel intensify attacks on Iranian critical infrastructure with Israel targeting railways, bridges, power plants, and other critical facilities.

However, in response, Iran has forcefully launched several drone and missile attacks on Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the UAE just as the Iranian military has stated that any attack on civilian infrastructure is going to be met with widespread devastating retaliatory strikes.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) said it will respond outside the region and deprive the United States and its allies of oil and gas ‘’for several years’’ if the US crosses ‘’red lines’’ and attack civilian facilities, while a Revolutionary Guard General has also urged parents to send their children to man checkpoints, which have been repeatedly targeted in airstrikes.

In the vein of this, an Iranian official has also urged youths to form human chains around power plants to protect them as President Trump’s latest deadline draws closer.

”Young people, athletes, artists, students and university students and their professors” to form human chains around power plants ahead of the threatened strikes.’’

Similarly, the secretary of the Supreme Council of Youth and Adolescents, Alireza Rahimi, in a video call during a newscast has also called on every Iranian youth to protect their power plants and national assets. ‘’Power plants that are our national assets and capital, regardless of any taste or political viewpoint, belong to the future of Iran and to the Iranian youth,” he stated.

Meanwhile, as U.S.- Israel strikes continue, with the intelligence chief of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards among dozens killed on Monday, Israel has warned Iranians to avoid traveling by train due to potential strikes on infrastructure.

The above notwithstanding, Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan who has been mediating talks between the United states and Iran, said Tuesday that efforts to end the war were approaching a critical stage.

‘’Positive and productive endeavours in God Will and Good Office to stop the war is approaching a critical, sensitive stage, Ambassador Reza Amiri Moghadam wrote on X, without explaining in details.

On the contrary, The Wall Street Journal has cited senior American negotiators and officials as opining that chances of an agreement with Iran by tonight’s deadline seemed slim.

As the deadline approaches, markets are on edge, with oil prices near $110 per barrel. The international community is urging restraint, with New Zealand’s Prime Minister warning against targeting civilian infrastructure. The International Energy Agency (IEA) warns that the conflict could trigger the greatest threat to global energy security in history, with oil and natural gas prices rising tremendously.

The world waits anxiously to see if diplomacy will prevail or if the situate will spiral further out of control, into a full-blown war.