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Trump Threatens Key Iran Energy Sites While Praising Peace Talks
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March 30, 2026
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5:44Now PlayingDan Williams, Bloomberg News Middle East Reporter, discusses the latest from the Middle East as US troops arrive in the region.
President Donald Trump threatened to destroy Iran’s energy infrastructure if no deal is reached to end the war there, while also hailing talks as productive.
“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,’” Trump posted Monday on his social media platform.
The message is Trump’s latest threat against Iran to allow shipping through the key strait, a month into the US and Israel’s bombing campaign. The effective closure of the waterway has squeezed global energy markets and raised the price of oil.
Trump’s comments come a day after he told reporters that Tehran agreed to “most of” the 15-point proposal of ceasefire terms put forth by the US via intermediaries in Pakistan. Iran had responded with five conditions of its own, including maintaining control over the Strait of Hormuz.
But the president also suggested he wanted to seize control of Iran’s oil in an interview with the Financial Times, a risky military operation that would entail a ground invasion and occupation of Tehran’s main oil export hub, Kharg Island. US President Donald Trump repeated threats to destroy Iranian energy assets if the Strait of Hormuz isn’t reopened soon, raising fears the war could escalate after more American troops arrived in the region.
The US “is in serious discussions” with what he called a new regime in Iran to end military operations, Trump said in a social-media post on Monday. But if a deal isn’t reached and Hormuz reopened, “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!).”
Trump has regularly vacillated between saying a deal with Iran is imminent and warning he’s prepared to up the military tempo, though in this case the threat to water facilities would constitute a war crime as defined by the Geneva Conventions.
Iran has consistently said peace talks aren’t progressing and has signalled it can carry on fighting for much longer. The US leader’s comments came as Israel and Iran exchanged missile strikes with the war continuing into a second month. The conflict is threatening to cause severe economic damage around the world, with the closure of the critical Hormuz waterway choking supplies of energy, fertilizer and other critical commodities.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News the US is “going to retake control” of Hormuz, ensuring safe navigation “through US escorts or a multinational escort.” This idea was initially raised in the early weeks of the war, though so far hasn’t been achieved.
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