With Trump's goals unmet, can strikes on Iran's economy force a deal?
Ordering the US military to destroy Iran's road transit system and electrical grid risks war crimes that may harden Iranian resistance after five weeks of bombing has failed to deliver Trump’s strategic objectives.
WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump on Monday warned that the US military will begin systematically destroying Iran's bridges and electrical infrastructure on Tuesday night if the country's leaders do not deliver a proposal before then that he deems acceptable to end the war.
“We’re giving them till tomorrow, eight o’clock Eastern Time, and after that they’re going to have no bridges. They’re going to have no power plants,” Trump told reporters at the White House during a press briefing on Monday afternoon.
The US president's threat to imminently expand the scope of the war comes after five weeks of continual US and Israeli strikes on Iran’s military and top political leadership has failed to convince the country’s remaining leaders to surrender their uranium enrichment program.
"Every bridge in Iran will be decimated by twelve o'clock tomorrow night, [and] every power plant in Iran will be out of business … never to be used again," Trump said. “I mean complete demolition,” he warned. “It’ll happen over a period of four hours."
