Trump threatened Iran with annihilation overnight. What the media is writing
US President Donald Trump has again threatened Iran with the destruction of critical infrastructure and has not postponed the deadline for the ultimatum. The Pentagon claims that this time Trump is really ready to give the order, and they are selecting targets that would not be considered a war crime. At the same time, Tehran rejects the demand to open the Strait of Hormuz. What the media write about the intentions of the White House is in the Izvestia digest.
The Washington Post: Trump threatens Iran with new destruction
Trump has again threatened to destroy Iran's bridges and power plants if Tehran does not agree to resume global oil trade through the Strait of Hormuz soon. At the same time, he said that the Iranian people support the bombing of the United States and Israel. He had already postponed his threat to bomb power plants twice before.
The Washington Post
"The whole country can be destroyed in one night, and that night could come tomorrow," he said on Monday, setting a deadline of 20:00 Eastern time on Tuesday [3:00 a.m. Moscow time on April 8] and promising to destroy the country by midnight if the leaders did not comply with his demands.
Trump dismissed concerns that his threat to bomb infrastructure facilities would violate the Geneva Conventions, a series of treaties signed by the United States after World War II to limit the danger to civilians. The US president said that American spies had been listening to conversations of Iranian civilians that indicated support for the bombing.
Axios: Trump's tipping point: Destroy infrastructure or give talks a chance
Trump will have to make a fateful decision in a short time: fulfill his threat to destroy the Iranian infrastructure or postpone his own deadline again to give negotiations a chance. Intermediaries from Pakistan, Egypt, and Turkey are working to avert a devastating outcome by striking a deal — or at least to gain time.
Axios
"If the president sees that the deal is nearing completion, he will probably wait. But he and he alone makes this decision," said a senior administration official. A Defense Ministry spokesman said they were "skeptical" about the possibility of extending the deadline this time.
According to an American source who has spoken with Trump several times in recent days, he is perhaps the most belligerent person in the highest echelons of his administration towards Iran. Trump's negotiating team—Vice President Jay D. Vance, Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner- believes he should try to make a deal now, if possible. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as political allies, are urging Trump not to agree to a cease-fire unless Iran makes concessions.
Politico: Pentagon helps Trump avoid war crimes charges
The Pentagon is expanding the list of Iranian energy facilities that it can attack, including facilities that provide fuel and electricity to both civilians and the military. This is a likely workaround if the Trump administration is accused of war crimes for targeting critical infrastructure. American and Israeli warplanes are searching for new targets after five weeks of round-the-clock strikes on military installations and an increase in the number of American ground troops in the region. The dual purpose of the targets makes them legitimate, officials said.
Politico
On Monday [April 6th] Trump threatened that "when all bridges in Iran are destroyed by midnight tomorrow, all power plants in Iran will be disabled, will burn, explode and will never be used again." The tension is over where to draw the line between military and civilian targets, such as water treatment plants, which can be considered targets since the military also needs water to drink.
The Geneva Convention, which regulates international humanitarian law, allows for certain exemptions in cases where the sites of strikes are used by both military and civilian populations. The American-Israeli bombing campaign has not affected the country's energy and fuel supplies in general. But as discontent grows in the White House over Iran's refusal to capitulate, the list of targets is expanding.
Reuters: Iran shows defiance on the eve of the expiration of the ultimatum
Tehran refused to open the Strait of Hormuz and accept a cease-fire agreement ahead of the deadline set by Trump for Iran to comply with his demands. However, Iran's ambassador to Pakistan, Reza Emiri Moghaddam, said Islamabad's "positive and productive efforts" to broker an end to the war were "approaching a critical, delicate stage," which could be a sign of progress.
Reuters
According to a source familiar with the plan, Iran rejected the U.S. proposal, brokered by Pakistan, for an immediate cease-fire and lifting of the de facto blockade of the strait, followed by negotiations on a broader peaceful settlement within 15-20 days. The Iranian response consisted of 10 points, including an end to conflicts in the region, a protocol on safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, the lifting of sanctions and restoration.
Early on the morning of April 7, the Israeli military announced the completion of a series of airstrikes on Iranian government infrastructure in Tehran and other areas. They used air defense systems to intercept missiles launched from Iran. Israel also issued a warning urging Iranians to avoid trains and stay away from railways until evening.
Financial Times: The United States calculates the cost of equipment destroyed in Iran
According to a recent analysis, Trump's war against Iran costs the United States hundreds of millions of dollars a day, and about a tenth of that amount is the cost of military equipment destroyed during the fighting. The losses of American soldiers and equipment are small compared to wars in which the forces of the parties are roughly equal, defense experts say, but Iran's destruction of expensive American radar systems has made Washington more vulnerable in the event of future conflicts in other theaters of war, such as in China.
Financial Times
Since February 28, 13 Americans have been killed as a result of strikes on American bases. More than 300 American soldiers were injured. Elaine McCusker, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a former senior Pentagon official in charge of the budget, estimates the cost of the campaign against Iran at $22.3–31 billion in the five weeks since Trump ordered the strike in late February. Her calculations take into account the cost of deploying additional US forces to the Middle East from the end of December, but do not take into account the full assessment of the damage caused during the fighting, which is unlikely to become clear before the end of the conflict.
These figures range from $2.1 billion to $3.6 billion to repair combat damage and replace equipment. The upper part of this range includes the cost of repairing the aircraft carrier Gerlad R. Ford, which was decommissioned for repairs after a fire in a laundry room, as well as the restoration of the ballistic missile early warning system in Qatar, damaged by a drone. The growing list of scarce and high-tech equipment destroyed by Iran has prompted analysts and former officials to express concern about the excessive burden on the US army and the use of resources that could be diverted to other purposes.
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