The China Mail - Iran awaits Trump threat to blow up power plants

Israel also gave the clearest signs yet it intends a ground campaign into Lebanon, destroying a key bridge as it vows to crush Hezbollah, the Shia Muslim movement backed by Iran.

Trump, after enthusiastically backing Israel in the war the two countries launched on February 28, is under political pressure as fuel prices rise, the result of Iran's attempts to retaliate in the oil-rich Gulf.

Trump on Saturday threatened to "obliterate" Iran's power plants if it did not within 48 hours end its partial blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway into the Gulf through which one-fifth of the world's oil flows.

The deadline, based on the time of his social media posting, would be 23:44 GMT, early morning Tuesday in Iran and Monday evening in Washington.

Iran's military command responded defiantly, saying that if Trump goes ahead, it would strike Israel's "power plants, energy and information and communications technology infrastructure" -- along with power plants in regional countries hosting US bases and companies with American shareholders.

"If the United States' threats regarding Iran's power plants are carried out... the Strait of Hormuz will be completely closed, and it will not be reopened until our destroyed power plants are rebuilt," a process that could take years, the operational command warned.

Iran's powerful parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf warned that vital infrastructure across the region would "be considered legitimate targets and will be irreversibly destroyed".

And the energy minister said US-Israeli strikes have already inflicted "heavy damage" on Iran's water and energy infrastructure.

Trump's threats drew rare concern from exiled Iranians supportive of the war, launched weeks after the Islamic republic crushed widespread demonstrations, killing thousands of people.

Reza Pahlavi, son of the late shah ousted in the 1979 Islamic revolution, called on Washington and Israel to target the "apparatus of repression" but to protect "Iran's civilian and vital infrastructure, which our people need to rebuild the country".

- Lebanon fears Israeli ground invasion -

Trump has offered varying timelines and objectives for the war, saying Friday he was considering "winding down" the operation, a day before his threat to power plants, which would mark a significant escalation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken of a long-term campaign against Iran's government, a rare state sponsor of Hamas, which carried out the unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack against Israel which responded by devastating Gaza.

"Citizens of Israel, we face more weeks of fighting against Iran and Hezbollah," Israeli military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said.

In Lebanon, where Israel occupied a southern section for 18 years until 2000, Israeli forces were given orders to destroy bridges they said were used by Hezbollah to cross the key Litani river, 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of the border.

More than 1,000 people have died in Lebanon since Israel launched strikes, according to the health ministry, with more than one million people displaced.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun warned that the bridge attacks "represent a dangerous escalation and flagrant violation of Lebanon's sovereignty, and are considered a prelude to a ground invasion".

But the country's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam also put blame on Hezbollah, which began firing on Israel in retaliation for its killing at the war's start of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

"It was declared that this war was in retaliation for the assassination of Khamenei, so this means this war was imposed upon us," Salam told the Al Hadath network.

Israel's army chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir warned that the "operation against the Hezbollah terrorist organisation has only begun".

- Iran takes toll in Israel -

Israel has prided itself on air defences, and Trump and Netanyahu both claim to have knocked out key Iranian military sites.

But Iranian missiles on Saturday managed to land in two southern towns including Dimona, close to Israel's desert nuclear facility. Dozens were injured.

"We thought we were safe," Galit Amir, a 50-year-old care provider, told AFP in Dimona. "We didn't expect this."

AFP journalists heard blasts early Sunday in Jerusalem as Iran fired a fresh barrage of missiles.

Netanyahu vowed to pursue senior commanders of Iran's Revolutionary Guards "personally" as he inspected the damage in Arad, the other town struck by an Iranian missile.

According to rescuers, a missile landed about five kilometres from what is widely believed to be the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, although Israel has never admitted to possessing nuclear weapons, insisting the site is for research.

Iran said the Dimona strike was in response to an earlier attack on its nuclear site at Natanz.

Asked about Natanz, Israel's military said it was "not aware of a strike".

In Iran, at least 3,230 people have died in the war, including 1,406 civilians, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. AFP is not able to access the sites of strikes nor independently verify tolls in Iran.

- Iran eyes Hormuz tax -

Oil prices rose again early Monday, with US benchmark crude briefly touching the $100-per-barrel mark.

In recent days, Iran has allowed some vessels from countries it considers friendly to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, while warning it would block ships from countries it says have joined the "aggression" against it.

Iran's parliament is mulling imposing tolls on shipping through the strait, with parliament speaker Ghalibaf saying maritime traffic would "not return to its pre-war status".

Patrick Pouyanne, the head of French oil giant TotalEnergies, said the economic outlook would worsen the longer the conflict dragged on.

"If it's more than six months, we will have some real impacts. All the economies of the world will be damaged," he told Chinese broadcaster CGTN.

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K.Leung--ThChM