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President Donald Trump escalated his ultimatum against Iran to its most explicit form yet on Monday, threatening to destroy Iran’s oil wells, power plants, desalination infrastructure, and its critical Kharg Island export hub if Tehran failed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and accept a peace deal, as Iran dismissed the U.S. proposal as unrealistic, missiles continued striking across the region, and thousands more American troops arrived in the Middle East.
Writing on Truth Social, Trump said the United States was in “serious discussions with A NEW, AND MORE REASONABLE, REGIME” in Iran to end military operations.
“Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet ‘touched,'” he wrote. He said the action would be carried out “in retribution” for Iran’s killing of U.S. soldiers over the prior 47 years.
The threat was the starkest yet in a series of escalating warnings Trump has issued over the strait. International law explicitly bans making civilian sites the object of attack or reprisals. Yusra Suedi, assistant professor in international law at the University of Manchester, said Trump’s threat “reinforces the climate of impunity around collective punishment in warfare.” “This is clearly an act of collective punishment, which is prohibited under international humanitarian law. You can’t deliberately harm an entire civilian population to pressure its government,” she told Al Jazeera. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, asked about the legality of the threats, said the administration and U.S. armed forces would “always act within the confines of the law,” adding that Trump had made clear the United States had “capabilities beyond their wildest imagination.”
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Kharg Island, located roughly 15 miles off Iran’s coast in the Persian Gulf, handles approximately 90 percent of Iran’s crude oil exports, generating net revenue estimated at $53 billion in 2025, equivalent to 11 percent of Iran’s GDP. Its deepwater terminals can load up to 1.6 million barrels per day. Trump has expressed interest in seizing the island for decades: in a 1988 interview, he said he would “go in and take it” if Iran challenged U.S. forces. Asked earlier on Sunday by the Financial Times about his current intentions, he said his preference would be “to take the oil in Iran” and that the U.S. had “a lot of options.”
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei confirmed on Monday that Tehran had received Washington’s 15-point peace proposal via intermediaries following the Islamabad ministerial talks. But he described it as “unrealistic, illogical and excessive,” and reiterated that Iran’s position remained one of active self-defense, not negotiation. “We are under military aggression. Therefore, all our efforts and strength are focused on defending ourselves,” he said. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, asked who the administration was in contact with inside Iran, declined to identify the interlocutors, saying disclosure “would probably get them in trouble with some other groups of people inside of Iran.”
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Secretary of State Rubio said Iran appeared to be trying to establish permanent control over the Strait of Hormuz. “The Iranians are threatening that they’re going to set up some permanent system in the Straits of Hormuz where they get to decide who goes through international waterways. That will never be allowed to happen,” he said, adding that Trump had “several options at his disposal.”
On the military front, Monday brought a further broadening of the conflict. Israeli strikes on Tehran targeted ballistic missile production facilities, and a U.S.-Israeli attack killed two people at an orphanage in Iran, Iranian state media reported. Three UN peacekeepers were killed and three others wounded in southern Lebanon since Saturday, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans to widen the ground campaign there. Spain closed its airspace to U.S. military aircraft involved in strikes against Iran, marking the latest European challenge to Washington’s conduct of the war. “We don’t authorize either the use of military bases or the use of airspace for actions related to the war in Iran,” Spain’s defense minister said. Turkey’s defense ministry said a ballistic missile launched from Iran entered Turkish airspace before being shot down by NATO air defenses, the fourth such incident since the war began. Two Houthi drones were also intercepted over Israel.
Brent crude was on track for its steepest monthly rise on record in March, trading at approximately $115 per barrel, up nearly 60 percent from the $72 price when the war began. Average U.S. gasoline prices reached $3.99 per gallon, their highest level since 2022. Iran confirmed Monday the death of IRGC Navy Commander Alireza Tangsiri, killed in an earlier Israeli strike. Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the opening days of the war, has assumed leadership of the clerical regime.
The April 6 deadline for Trump’s moratorium on strikes against Iranian energy infrastructure remains one week away. No confirmed date or venue for direct U.S.-Iran talks had been established as of Monday evening.
