US President Donald Trump has issued the chilling warning that "a whole civilisation will die tonight" ahead of his looming deadline approaches.
This comes after Mr Trump had set a deadline of 1am Irish time on Wednesday morning to reach a deal with Tehran, having started a war with the country by ordering bombs on them on February 28.
According to Reuters, a senior Iranian source had said that Tehran would not show flexibility as long as Washington continues to issue the demand of "surrender under pressure". The source also said that Qatar had shared this message from Tehran to the US and regional countries that if Iran's power plants "the entire region and Saudi Arabia will fall into complete darkness with Iran's retaliatory strikes".
They also warned that "if the situation gets out of control, Iran’s allies will also close the Bab El-Mandeb Strait".
Posting on his Truth Social, Donald Trump wrote the following message.
"A whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again", he said.
"I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalised minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!".
Just minutes after Trump shared this message, the US also bombed Kharg Island, which is an area producing a large volume of Iranian oil. A number of attacks were also carried out on civilian infrastructure earlier on Tuesday, with bridges and residential complexes affected.
Elsewhere, the US Energy Information Administration has warned that fuel prices could continue to rise for months even after the Strait of Hormuz reopens, which disputes Donald Trump's claims that the country would see immediate relief when the war with Iran ends.
So far, fuel and oil prices have skyrocketed around the world, as Iran continues to block vessels from cross the Strait of Hormuz.
Now, the EIA, despite the President's repeated claims that these rising prices are only short-term, have said that these fuel prices depends on a number of elements, including how long the Strait of Hormuz remains closed for, as well as the amount of oil production that has been shut in the Middle East as a result.
Both of these variables can only be estimated, the added.
They said: "Just as we had never before seen the strait close, we've never seen it reopen. What exactly that looks like remains to be seen".
