Trump gives Iran 48-hour ultimatum over Strait of Hormuz

https://www.politico.eu/article/trump-gives-iran-ultimatum-over-strait-of-hormuz/

Trump gives Iran 48-hour ultimatum over Strait of Hormuz

Tehran warned in reply that any strike on its energy plants would prompt retaliatory attacks on U.S. and Israeli energy and infrastructure facilities.

The Isfahan refinery in Isfahan, Iran is pictured on Nov. 8, 2023. | Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images

March 22, 2026 8:35 am CET

By Jones Hayden

U.S. President Donald Trump warned late Saturday that the United States will “obliterate” energy plants in Iran if the government in Tehran doesn't fully open the Strait of Hormuz, giving the country a 48-hour deadline to comply.

"If Iran doesn’t fully open, without threat, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 hours from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various power plants, starting with the biggest one first," Trump said in a post on Trust Social.

Tehran warned in reply that any strike on its energy plants would prompt retaliatory attacks on U.S. and Israeli energy and infrastructure facilities.

"If Iran's fuel and energy infrastructure is attacked by the enemy, all infrastructure of energy, information technology, and desalination facilities" in the region belonging to the U.S. and Israel "will be targeted," spokesperson for the Khatam al-Anbia Central Headquarters of Iran warned in a statement carried by the Tasnim news agency Sunday morning.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of Iran's parliament, said that in retaliatory strikes, "critical infrastructure and energy and oil infrastructure throughout the region will be considered legitimate targets and irreversibly destroyed, and oil prices will rise for a long time."

The warnings of escalation in the Mideast conflict come after the British government on Saturday confirmed that Tehran launched an unsuccessful attack on Diego Garcia, a joint U.S.-U.K. military base in the Indian Ocean. Iran’s semiofficial Mehr news agency said Tehran fired two intermediate-range ballistic missiles at the base in the Chagos Islands.

Neither missile hit the base, Mehr added. One missile failed to reach the island, while another was shot down by a U.S. warship, according to separate media reports.

It was the longest-range attack yet by Iran since the U.S. and Israeli strikes on the country started in late February. Israel claimed that Iran has missiles with a range of about 4,000 kilometers, capable of hitting the capitals of Britain, France and Germany, as well as the Chagos Islands. "The Iranian terrorist regime poses a global threat. Now, with missiles that can reach London, Paris or Berlin," the Israel Defense Forces said in a post on X.

Britain said Sunday morning that it is ready to defend itself against a potential Iranian missile assault on London. U.K. Communities Secretary Steve Reed told BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that there "is no specific assessment that the Iranians are targeting the U.K."

“I’m not aware of any assessment at all that they are even trying to target Europe, let alone that they could if they tried," Reed said. "But even if they did, we have the necessary military capability to defend this country.”

Iran's targeting of the base on Diego Garcia occurred before Britain on Friday confirmed that U.S. use of its bases can involve defensive operations against "missile sites and capabilities being used to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz," a permission that includes the Indian Ocean island.

Trump's ultimatum to Tehran over Hormuz came a day after the U.S. president broached "winding down" American military operations in the region and suggested the responsibility for policing the strait would fall to other countries. The Pentagon, meanwhile, was sending thousands more Marines and additional warships to the Middle East, according to media reports.

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