Trump gives Iran 48 hour ultimatum to reopen Strait of Hormuz or face ‘obliteration’ of power infrastructure

Trump Iran ultimatum: 48-hour deadline issued to reopen Strait of Hormuz or face grid strike

Muhammad Asghar | GlobalBeat

President Donald Trump gave Iran a 48-hour ultimatum on Friday to reopen the blocked Strait of Hormuz or see its national power grid targeted for destruction.

Trump told reporters at the White House that Tehran would face “obliteration” of electricity infrastructure if tanker traffic was not restored within two days.

The warning followed Iran’s seizure of a Marshall Islands-flagged vessel and Tehran’s announcement that the waterway was closed until the United States ended military support for Israel.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said U.S. naval forces in the Gulf had been ordered to “prepare kinetic options” and that planning for strikes on Iranian power plants, substations and transmission lines was complete.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations replied that any attack on its territory would trigger “immediate retaliation against American bases and allies from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean.”

Oil prices jumped 8% to $91 a barrel after Trump’s comments, while the Pentagon raised the force-protection level for troops in Iraq, Syria, Kuwait and Bahrain.

European capitals urged restraint. France President Emmanuel Macron called Trump and “underscored the necessity of avoiding escalation,” the Élysée Palace said.

An emergency closed-door meeting of the U.N. Security Council was scheduled for Saturday morning, diplomats said.

Tehran closed the strait on Wednesday after accusing Washington of “direct involvement” in Israel’s air campaign against Iranian-linked targets in Syria.

Roughly 20% of globally traded oil and one-third of seaborne liquefied natural gas pass through the 21-mile-wide channel between Iran and Oman.

Analysts at clearing house Braemar said 40 tankers carrying 28 million barrels were now idled outside the chokepoint, adding $400,000 a day in demurrage costs for each ship.

The last comparable closure occurred in 1988 during the Iran-Iraq tanker war, when U.S. naval escorts re-opened the route after Operation Praying Mantis sank half of Iran’s operational fleet.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps detained the tanker Advantage Sweet as it exited the strait on Tuesday, claiming its cargo violated sanctions.

The State Department said the vessel’s 23 Indian and Filipino crew were safe and that the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Stockdale remained within visual range of the hijacked ship.

A second commercial vessel, the Bahamian-flagged oil products carrier Cygnus Mons, diverted to the Omani port of Duqm on Thursday after Iranian speedboats approached, ship-tracking data showed.

Insurance syndicates at Lloyd’s of London widened the high-risk area in the Gulf, raising war-risk premiums to 2.5% of cargo value from 0.75%, industry sources said.

Background

The United States and Iran have come close to open conflict in the strait before. In July 2019 Tehran shot down an American surveillance drone it said had entered Iranian airspace, prompting Trump to order, then cancel, retaliatory strikes.

Washington withdrew from the 2015 nuclear accord in 2018 and imposed sanctions aimed at cutting Iranian oil exports to zero. Iranian crude shipments have since fallen to around 600,000 barrels a day from 2.5 million, customs data shows.

Last month U.S. and Iranian envoys held indirect talks in Oman on Tehran’s rapidly expanding uranium enrichment, but diplomats said the discussions ended without progress.

What’s Next

The 48-hour countdown expires at 3 p.m. EDT on Sunday. The White House said Trump would address the nation “on next steps” if Iran refuses to release the tanker and lift its blockade by the deadline.