The President of the United States, Donald Trump, threatened this Sunday to attack Iran’s power plants if the Islamic Republic “does not fully open” the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours.
“If Iran does not fully open, without threats, the Strait of Hormuz within 48 HOURS from this very moment, the United States will attack and destroy its various power plants, starting with the largest,” Trump wrote on his social network, Truth Social.
Trump’s message comes after the US military announced Saturday that it had weakened Iran’s ability to “threaten freedom of navigation” in the Strait of Hormuz, after this week attacking an underground arsenal located along the country’s coast.
The facility was used to store anti-ship cruise missiles and other materials, US Central Command leader Brad Cooper explained in a video posted on social media.
Traffic reduced by 95%
The Strait of Hormuz is the only maritime passage between the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean and 20% of global crude oil exports pass through it.
Since the beginning of the war, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s attempts to prevent the passage of ships whose cargo could benefit the US and Israel have drastically reduced – by 95%, according to sector analysts such as Kpler – the traffic of cargo ships and oil tankers in Hormuz, causing oil prices to soar.
Trump urged NATO allies or Asian countries, such as South Korea, Japan and even China, which depend heavily on the region’s oil, to provide military support in the strait to guarantee navigation through it, but, for now, none have committed to sending resources to the area.
The war that the United States and Israel have been waging against Iran since February 28, the date on which the country’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, was assassinated, enters its fourth week without Trump having clarified how long he expects the conflict to last.
