Trump sets Tuesday 8pm deadline as Iran vows to expand retaliation if civilian targets are hit

Trump sets Tuesday 8pm deadline as Iran vows to expand retaliation if civilian targets are hit

Quick Reads

• Trump has set 8 p.m. ET on Tuesday, April 7, as the deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face sweeping strikes on power plants, bridges, and other civilian infrastructure.
• Iran’s IRGC warned it will take retaliatory action beyond the region and cut off oil and gas supplies to the US and its allies “for many years” if Washington crosses what it called “red lines” against civilian targets.
• Tehran formally rejected a Pakistan-brokered 45-day ceasefire proposal, insisting through a 10-point response delivered via Islamabad that only a permanent end to the war is acceptable.
• Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, was in overnight contact with US Vice President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in a last-ditch push for a deal.
• Iran’s deputy health minister reports more than 2,000 Iranians killed since the war began on February 28, with fresh strikes on residential areas of Tehran reported by the Iranian Red Crescent early Tuesday.

US President Donald Trump has given Iran until 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, 3:30 a.m. Wednesday in Tehran, to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face a massive bombing campaign. In a profanity-laced post on Truth Social over the Easter weekend, Trump threatened to destroy Iranian power plants and bridges, warning in stark language that the failure to act would bring devastating consequences. Speaking at a White House press conference on Monday, Trump added that Iran could be “taken out in one night,” while describing the latest Iranian diplomatic communication as “a significant proposal” that was still “not good enough.”

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps responded on Tuesday by calling Trump’s threats “baseless” and warning that any attack on non-civilian targets would draw a “far more forceful” response. Going further, the IRGC said it would act outside the region and deprive the United States and its allies of oil and gas for many years if Washington crossed what Tehran defined as red lines targeting civilian infrastructure. Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf warned that the region risks a broader conflagration. An adviser to Iran’s newly appointed supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei also threatened to activate the Bab al-Mandeb Strait — the chokepoint between Yemen and the Horn of Africa, as a secondary pressure point if the US escalated further.

On the diplomatic front, Egypt, Pakistan, and Turkey jointly drafted a 45-day ceasefire framework, tentatively called the “Islamabad Accord,” proposing an immediate halt to hostilities and the reopening of Hormuz, with 15 to 20 days set aside to finalise a broader agreement. According to Reuters, Pakistan’s army chief held overnight contacts with US and Iranian officials in a push to lock in all elements of the proposal before Trump’s deadline. Iran formally replied through Islamabad with a 10-point document that rejected any temporary pause and laid out conditions including a permanent ceasefire, a safe passage protocol for the Strait of Hormuz, reconstruction commitments, and the lifting of sanctions. A senior Iranian official told Reuters that Tehran will not reopen the strait under time pressure or as part of a temporary arrangement, and that Washington was not ready for a permanent ceasefire either. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei stated publicly that negotiations are “incompatible with ultimatums and threats to commit war crimes.”

On the ground, the toll from five weeks of US-Israeli strikes on Iran continued to rise on Tuesday. The Iranian Red Crescent reported rescuers working through rubble in a residential area of Tehran following an early-morning airstrike, with the Iran Red Crescent not disclosing the exact location. At least 18 civilians, including two children, were reported killed in the Alborz Province by the semi-official Mehr News Agency. The IDF’s Farsi-language account on Tuesday issued a warning to all Iranians to avoid railways across the country until 9 p.m., hours after Iran reported two deaths following an attack on a railway bridge in Kashan. The Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil and gas flows, has remained under an effective Iranian blockade since late February, the most severe disruption to global energy supply since the 1970s oil crisis, according to market analysts.