Little sign of breakthrough as Trump’s Iran deadline nears. 10 hours ago. Anthony ZurcherNorth America correspondent. Getty Images. US President Donald Trump has set deadlines, made demands and issued threats over the course of the five-week joint US-Israeli war against Iran. But seldom have they been this explicit.. The new round of strikes against Iran will be devastating. They will begin at 20:00 Washington DC time on Tuesday (00:00 GMT on Wednesday) . Within four hours, every bridge and power plant in the nation will be “decimated”.. “Very little is off-limits,” Trump said on Monday.. To avoid this fate, according to the president, Iran has to make a deal “that’s acceptable to me”. A component of the agreement should include “free traffic of oil” through the Strait of Hormuz.. Trump threatens to take out Iran in ‘one night’ if no deal before deadline. Trump issues expletive-laden threat to Iran over Hormuz Strait blockage. As the final hours tick down, there has been little indication that Iran is ready to agree to Trump’s ultimatum. They’ve rejected a temporary ceasefire and issued their own list of demands, which a US official described as “maximalist”.. This places the US president in a delicate position. If there is no agreement, Trump could extend his deadline – for the fourth time in the past three weeks.. But backing away after such detailed threats, punctuated with expletives and dire warnings, could undercut his credibility as the war grinds on.. It’s possible Iran, and the rest of the world, could conclude that despite America’s military might and tactical skill – readily displayed in this weekend’s intricate operation to rescue two downed airmen deep in Iran – it is not negotiating from a clear position of strength.. “We won,” Trump insisted during a news conference on Monday afternoon. “They are militarily defeated. The only thing they have is the psychology of: ‘Oh, we’re going to drop a couple of mines in the water’.”. That “psychology” – the ability to deter oil tankers from moving through the Strait of Hormuz with drones, missiles and mines – may be a more potent Iranian asset than the US has been willing to acknowledge.. During Monday’s news conference, Trump marvelled at US military precision on display in last year’s “Midnight Hammer” bombing raid on Iran’s nuclear sites, the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January and this weekend’s rescue mission.. He and his national security team celebrated that most recent effort – which included co-ordinating hundreds of aircraft and elite military personnel, and employing misdirection and technological wizardy. But the effort, while remarkable, was to avoid what Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth acknowledged was a “potential tragedy”.. Even if that tragedy had been averted, the triumphant rescue underlined the risk US forces still face in Iran. And the president may be learning that US military power has its limits.. “We can bomb the hell out of them,” he
