‘A whole civilization will die tonight,’ Trump says as Iran defies deal

Iran showed no sign of accepting Donald Trump’s ultimatum to open the Strait of Hormuz by the end of Tuesday, while the U.S. president threatened that “a whole civilization will die tonight” unless Tehran reached a last-minute deal.

Trump has given Iran until 8 p.m. in Washington — 3:30 a.m. in Tehran — to end its blockade of Gulf oil, or he will destroy every bridge and power plant in Iran. Iran says it would retaliate against U.S. allies in the Gulf , whose desert cities would be uninhabitable without power or water.

As the clock ticked down on Trump’s deadline, strikes on Iran intensified throughout the day, hitting railway and road bridges, an airport and a petrochemical plant. U.S. forces attacked targets on Kharg Island, home to Iran’s main oil export terminal, which Trump has openly mused about seizing.

Iran responded by declaring it would no longer hold back from hitting its Gulf neighbors’ infrastructure, and claimed to have carried out fresh strikes on a ship in the Gulf and a huge Saudi petrochemical complex.

“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social website.

“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? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World.”

Brian Finucane, a former U.S. State Department legal advisor now with the International Crisis Group, said Trump’s remarks “could plausibly be interpreted as a threat to commit genocide” under U.S. and international law.

With only hours left before the deadline, a senior Iranian source said Tehran was maintaining its refusal to reopen the strait without U.S. concessions that so far were not forthcoming.

Pakistan, which has been the main go-between, was still relaying messages, but Washington had not changed its tone, the source said. If the U.S. carried out Trump’s threat to hit Iran’s power grid, Tehran would plunge Gulf states including Saudi Arabia into darkness, the source added, a threat that had been conveyed to Washington via Qatar.

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the White House, April 6, 2026. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

Earlier, another senior Iranian source told Reuters that Tehran had rejected a proposal conveyed by intermediaries for a temporary ceasefire.

Talks on a lasting peace could begin only after the U.S. and Israel stop bombing, guarantee not to start again and offer compensation for damage, the Iranian source said, adding that any settlement must leave Iran in control of the strait, imposing fees for transit.

Despite the intensification of strikes and rhetoric from both sides, global markets were largely paralyzed, hesitant to bet on whether Trump would follow through on his threats or call them off as he has in the past.

Among the reports of strikes inside Iran were attacks on railway bridges, a highway bridge, a petrochemical plant and an airport. Power was knocked out in parts of Karaj west of Tehran by a strike on transmission lines and a substation. Israel warned Iranians in a Persian-language social media post that anyone near railways would be in danger.

A synagogue in Tehran was destroyed overnight by what Iran said were Israeli air strikes. Footage in Iranian media showed Hebrew texts scattered in the debris.

“The synagogue building was completely destroyed and our Torah scrolls were left under the rubble,” said Homayoun Sameh, a lawmaker representing Iran’s Jewish community, one of the Middle East’s largest outside Israel. Israel’s military had no immediate comment.

Iran responded to an overnight attack on a major petrochemical site with a strike on Saudi Arabia’s huge downstream oil industry site at Jubail, where Western oil firms operate multi-billion dollar ventures. Video verified by Reuters showed smoke and flames rising.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in a statement that Tehran would “deprive America and its allies in the region of oil and gas for years.”

“Up to today we have shown great restraint for the sake of good neighborliness and have had some consideration in choosing targets for retaliation,” it said. “But all these restraints have since been removed.”

Iranians hoped the threatened escalation could be averted.

“I hope it is another bluff by Trump,” Shima, 37, from the central city of Isfahan, told Reuters by phone.

Trump has abruptly called off similar threats over the past several weeks, citing what he has described as productive negotiations with figures in Iran he has never identified. Tehran has denied any such substantive talks have taken place.

Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan said “positive and productive endeavors” by Islamabad to mediate an end to the war were “approaching a critical, sensitive stage.”

A proposal conveyed by Pakistan called for a temporary ceasefire and the lifting of Iran’s effective blockade of the strait, while putting off a broader peace settlement for further talks, according to a source familiar with the plan.

But Iran’s 10-point response, as reported by IRNA news agency on Monday, would require a permanent end to the war, the lifting of sanctions and a promise of reconstruction of Iranian sites damaged by the Israeli-U.S. strikes.

It would also include a new mechanism to govern passage through the strait — previously an open international waterway through which a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas typically passed. Since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, Iran has effectively closed it to most ships apart from its own.

Trump reiterated his deadline in a social media message on Sunday, declaring, “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH!”

Iranian officials described the language as desperate or even mad.

伊朗没有表现出接受唐纳德·特朗普在周二结束前开放霍尔木兹海峡的最后通牒的迹象，而美国总统威胁说，除非德黑兰在最后一刻达成协议，“今晚整个文明将灭亡”。

特朗普已向伊朗发出最后通牒，要求其在华盛顿时间晚上8点（德黑兰时间凌晨3点30分）前结束对海湾石油的封锁，否则他将摧毁伊朗境内的所有桥梁和发电厂。伊朗则表示，如果美国在海湾地区的盟友失去电力和水源，这些国家的沙漠城市将无法居住，伊朗也将采取报复行动。

随着特朗普设定的最后期限临近，对伊朗的袭击在当天愈演愈烈，目标包括铁路和公路桥梁、一座机场和一家石化厂。美军还袭击了哈尔克岛上的目标，该岛是伊朗主要的石油出口码头所在地，特朗普曾公开表示有意夺取该码头。

伊朗随即宣布将不再克制，继续打击海湾邻国的基础设施，并声称对海湾中的一艘船只和沙特阿拉伯的一个大型石化综合体发动了新的袭击。

“今晚，一个文明将彻底消亡，永世不得翻身。我不希望这种情况发生，但它很可能会发生，”特朗普在他的“真相社交”网站上写道。

“然而，既然我们已经实现了彻底的政权更迭，更加不同、更睿智、不那么激进的思想占据了主导地位，或许会发生一些革命性的奇迹，谁知道呢？今晚，我们将见证这一切，这将是世界漫长而复杂的历史上最重要的时刻之一。”

曾任美国国务院法律顾问、现任职于国际危机组织的布莱恩·芬努凯恩表示，根据美国和国际法，特朗普的言论“很可能被解读为威胁实施种族灭绝”。

距离最后期限仅剩几个小时，一位伊朗高级消息人士称，德黑兰方面仍然拒绝在美国不做出让步的情况下重新开放霍尔木兹海峡，而迄今为止，美国尚未做出任何让步。

消息人士称，作为主要中间人的巴基斯坦仍在传递信息，但华盛顿的语气并未改变。该消息人士还补充说，如果美国真的像特朗普威胁的那样打击伊朗电网，德黑兰将使包括沙特阿拉伯在内的海湾国家陷入黑暗，而这一威胁是通过卡塔尔传达给华盛顿的。

美国总统唐纳德·特朗普于2026年4月6日在白宫发表讲话。（凯文·拉马克/路透社）

此前，另一位伊朗高级消息人士告诉路透社，德黑兰拒绝了中间人提出的暂时停火提议。

伊朗消息人士称，只有在美国和以色列停止轰炸、保证不再轰炸并对损失提供赔偿之后，才能开始关于持久和平的谈判。他还补充说，任何解决方案都必须让伊朗继续控制海峡，并对过境船只收取费用。

尽管双方的罢工和言辞愈演愈烈，但全球市场基本处于瘫痪状态，人们犹豫不决，不知特朗普是否会兑现他的威胁，还是会像过去那样取消这些威胁。

据报道，伊朗境内遭到袭击的目标包括铁路桥梁、公路桥梁、一家石化厂和一座机场。德黑兰以西的卡拉季部分地区因输电线路和变电站遭到袭击而停电。以色列在社交媒体上用波斯语发帖警告伊朗民众，任何靠近铁路的人都将面临危险。

德黑兰一座犹太教堂一夜之间被摧毁，伊朗方面称这是以色列空袭所致。伊朗媒体发布的画面显示，希伯来文经文散落在废墟中。

“犹太教堂建筑被彻底摧毁，我们的《托拉》经卷被埋在废墟下，”代表伊朗犹太社区的议员霍马尤恩·萨梅赫说道。伊朗犹太社区是除以色列以外中东地区最大的犹太社区之一。以色列军方尚未对此发表评论。

伊朗对沙特阿拉伯朱拜勒大型下游石油工业基地发动袭击，以回应昨夜沙特阿拉伯一处大型石化设施遭袭事件。西方石油公司在该基地运营着价值数十亿美元的项目。路透社核实的视频显示，现场浓烟滚滚，火光冲天。

伊朗革命卫队在一份声明中表示，德黑兰将“在未来数年内剥夺美国及其在该地区的盟友的石油和天然气供应”。

声明称：“迄今为止，出于睦邻友好，我们一直保持着极大的克制，并且在选择报复目标时也经过了深思熟虑。但所有这些克制都已被取消。”

伊朗人希望局势升级的威胁能够避免。

“我希望这是特朗普的又一次虚张声势，”来自中部城市伊斯法罕的37岁居民希玛在电话中告诉路透社。

过去几周，特朗普突然取消了类似的威胁，理由是他与伊朗方面进行了富有成效的谈判，但他从未透露过这些谈判的具体内容。德黑兰方面否认曾进行过任何实质性会谈。

伊朗驻巴基斯坦大使表示，伊斯兰堡为调解结束战争所做的“积极而富有成效的努力”正“接近一个关键的敏感阶段”。

据一位熟悉该计划的消息人士透露，巴基斯坦提出的方案呼吁暂时停火，并解除伊朗对海峡的实际封锁，同时推迟更广泛的和平解决方案，以便进行进一步谈判。

但据伊朗伊斯兰共和国通讯社（IRNA）周一报道，伊朗提出的十点回应要求永久结束战争、解除制裁，并承诺重建被以色列和美国空袭破坏的伊朗设施。

该计划还将包括一项新的通航机制，用于管理海峡的通行——此前，海峡是一条开放的国际水道，全球五分之一的石油和液化天然气通常经由此航道运输。自2月28日美国和以色列袭击伊朗以来，伊朗实际上已对除本国船只外的绝大多数船只关闭了海峡通道。

特朗普周日在社交媒体上重申了他的最后期限，宣称：“打开海峡，你们这些疯子，否则你们就等着下地狱吧——等着瞧！”

伊朗官员形容这种语言是绝望的，甚至是疯狂的。