Trump warns a ‘whole civilization will die tonight’ if a deal with Iran isn’t reached

U.S. President Donald Trump has warned that a “whole civilization will die tonight,” but said Iran still has time to capitulate ahead of a deadline set for 8 p.m. EDT. The American leader issued the stark threat Tuesday, about 12 hours ahead of his deadline for Iran to agree to a deal that includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

But Trump’s statement nonetheless kept the possibility of an off-ramp open, saying that “maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen.”

The U.S. also struck military targets on the Iranian oil hub of Kharg Island, according to a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The attack marked the second time the island was targeted.

Trump on Monday threatened to blow up every bridge and power plant in Iran, an action that would be so far-reaching that some experts in military law said it could constitute a war crime. Trump said that he’s “not at all” concerned about committing war crimes.

Iran’s president said Tuesday that 14 million Iranians, including himself, have volunteered to sacrifice their lives in the war. The figure is double the other figures mentioned by state media in the past. Iran is home to 90 million people.

The death toll from the war has risen to more than 1,900 people in Iran and over 1,400 people in Lebanon. Iran’s government has not updated the toll for days. In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 23 have been reported dead in Israel and 13 U.S. service members have been killed. Millions of people in Iran and Lebanon have been displaced.

US Vice President JD Vance says he’s ‘confident’ Iran will respond to US demands by evening deadline

“I hope they’re smart,” he said.

Speaking during a news conference in Hungary’s capital Budapest, Vance said the United States had already defeated Iran’s militarily and that Iran was now “trying to exact as much economic pain on the world as possible” by keeping the Straight of Hormuz closed.

The U.S., he said, “has the ability to extract much greater economic cost on Iran than Iran has an ability to extract cost on us or on our friends in the world.”

“We feel confident that we can get a response, whether it is positive or negative, by 8 o’clock tonight,” he said referring to the 8 p.m. ET deadline set by President Trump.

US again strikes Kharg Island, a critical oil hub for Iran

That’s according to a White House official who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The U.S. hit military targets on the island, the official said Tuesday. The strikes came hours ahead of a deadline Trump set for Iran to capitulate to his demands or face a major attack. He said Tuesday morning that “’whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran did not make a deal.

Trump has threatened to deploy ground troops to seize critical oil infrastructure on the island, but experts warn such an operation would cost the lives of many U.S. military members and would not be a decisive move to ending the war.

The U.S. had earlier in the war struck several targets on the island, including air defenses, a radar site, an airport and a hovercraft base, according to satellite analysis by the Institute for the Study of War and American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project.

Earlier Tuesday, the semiofficial Mehr news agency put out a report saying there had been several explosions on Kharg Island, without elaborating.

Vance seemed to confirm reports of US strikes on Iran’s Kharg Island

Responding to a question on the reported strike, Vice President J.D. Vance said it is “my understanding … that we were to strike some military targets on Kharg Island. I believe we’ve done so.”

Strikes on Iran’s railroads threaten to disrupt travel out of the country

Since the war shut Iran’s air travel, trains, along with buses and rented taxis, have ferried thousands of Iranians toward the Turkish border, carrying to safety those who’ve chosen to wait out the war abroad.

Passenger trains were booked through this week, one Tehran resident told The Associated Press shortly after he crossed into Turkey at the end of March. Speaking anonymously for his security, he said he had rented a taxi to travel roughly 545 miles (880 kilometers) west to the border. He planned on returning to Iran after a few months.

Earlier Tuesday, Israel’s military warned Iranians not to use train travel “for the sake of your security.”

Israel’s foreign ministry condemned the attack on its consulate in Istanbul

And the foreign ministry said it appreciated the action of Turkish security forces to combat it.

“Terror will not deter us,” the ministry wrote on X.

Missile strikes UAE telecommunications building, injuring 2

A telecommunications building in the United Arab Emirates was struck Tuesday by an Iranian ballistic missile, injuring two people, authorities said.

The missile hit an administrative building for the Thuraya Telecommunications Company in Sharjah, the medical office said.

The two Pakistani nationals injured in the strike were taken to a hospital, the office said.

Tehran resident fears Iran will be ‘destroyed’ by US infrastructure attacks

A northern Tehran resident says friends and family are storing water and charging phones over fears the U.S. will take out Iran’s energy infrastructure.

“By attacking infrastructure, the Islamic Republic will not be destroyed, only we will be destroyed,” the resident told The Associated Press, speaking anonymously for her safety.

The teacher in her 20s spoke to the AP in the weeks before the war when Iranians were reeling from the killing of thousands of anti-government protesters.

Many opponents of Iran’s government hoped a threatened U.S.-Israeli strike would quickly overthrow it, she said.

“Like the people who were desperate and were afraid of people getting killed again, I believed Trump’s words. I thought that he would kill a few leaders of the regime and the work of this regime would be finished,” she said Tuesday.

Now she fears U.S. and Israeli attacks will spread chaos: “If we don’t have the internet, and if we don’t have electricity, water, and gas, we’re really going back to the Stone Age, as Trump said.”

Iran’s internet remains largely blocked, throttling news as panic spreads that critical infrastructure will be destroyed in the next 24 hours.

Iran warns fuel will be cut off ‘for years’ if Trump carries out threat

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard warned Tuesday it would “deprive the U.S and its allies of the region’s oil and gas for years” if U.S. President Donald Trump carries out his threat to attack power plants and bridges if the Strait of Hormuz doesn’t open.

Multiple Iranian media outlets carried the statement.

It also issued a new threat to the Gulf Arab states.

“We have exercised great restraint and had considerations in choosing retaliatory targets, but from now on all these considerations have been removed,” the warning read.