US to strike Iran Tuesday night if no deal

US President Donald Trump on Monday expanded his threat against Iran to include all of the country’s power plants and bridges, as his ultimatum to make a deal ticked closer after Tehran rejected a 45-day ceasefire proposal and said it wants a permanent end to the war.

“The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night,” Trump said. He suggested that his deadline of 8pm ET on Tuesday (3am Israel time on Wednesday) was final, saying he’d already given Iran enough extensions.

“We have a plan… where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o’clock tomorrow night, where every power plant will be out of business, burning, exploding and never to be used again, I mean, complete demolition, by 12 o’clock, and it will happen over a period of four hours if we want that to happen,” he said.

“We don’t want that,” he added, noting that the US may end up helping Iran rebuild, in which case he would not want to have to reconstruct expensive infrastructure like that.

He said Iran did not take him seriously before, leading him to order the demolition of a major bridge near Tehran last week within minutes of talks falling apart.