Iran’s parliamentary speaker has launched a scathing condemnation of Donald Trump’s latest threats, accusing the US president of blindly following orders from Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and dragging America towards catastrophe. “Your reckless moves are dragging the United States into a living HELL for every single family, and our whole region is going to burn because you insist on following Netanyahu’s commands,” Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf posted on social media platform X.
The rhetorical broadside came after Trump used expletive-laden language on his Truth Social platform to threaten Iran’s civilian infrastructure, demanding it reopen the Strait of Hormuz to shipping. “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell,” he wrote, vowing to target Iranian energy and transport networks, including power plants and bridges.
Diplomatic and Political Fallout
Trump’s bellicose language provoked immediate and fierce criticism from across the American political spectrum. Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former ally, called on the administration to “intervene in Trump’s madness”, declaring the president “has gone insane, and all of you are complicit”. Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said Trump was “ranting like an unhinged madman on social media”, threatening potential war crimes and alienating allies. Independent Senator Bernie Sanders labelled the statements “dangerous and mentally unbalanced”.
In response to Trump’s threats against civilian sites, Iran’s central military command warned of “much more devastating” retaliation, stating that any repeated attacks on such targets would trigger subsequent operations that are “much more devastating and widespread.” Iran’s culture minister dismissed Trump as an “unstable, delusional figure”.
The escalating crisis has spurred international diplomatic efforts. Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi announced her government was preparing for leadership-level talks with Iran, a critical balancing act given that approximately 90% of Japan’s crude oil comes from the Middle East, much of it via the Strait of Hormuz.
Military Escalation and Regional Attacks
Amid the war of words, military actions continued across the region. The US successfully rescued the second crew member of a downed F-15E fighter jet in south-west Iran, an operation President Trump described as daring and which reportedly involved CIA subterfuge. During these rescue operations, at least five people were reported killed in US-Israeli attacks in the same area.
Demonstrating its continued reach, Iran expanded attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure over the weekend. The Kuwait Petroleum Corporation said a number of its facilities were targeted by Iranian drones, causing fires and “significant material losses”, including at two power and water desalination plants. Bahrain confirmed an Iranian drone strike caused a fire at a storage tank, and the United Arab Emirates reported a drone attack on a telecommunications building in Fujairah and fires at a petrochemical plant in Ruwais. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also claimed they hit an Israeli-linked vessel at Dubai’s Jebel Ali port.
In a significant escalation, Iranian ballistic missiles struck a residential building in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, killing two people and partially collapsing the structure. Rescue services were searching for two others missing in the rubble. Four people were wounded, including a 10-month-old baby with a head injury. Israel’s military said its defensive systems were operating to intercept fresh waves of missiles from Iran.
The conflict also raged on Israel’s northern border. Israeli attacks in Lebanon on Sunday killed at least 15 people, according to the country’s health ministry, with one strike in Beirut’s Jnah neighbourhood killing at least five and wounding 52. Israel’s military chief visited troops in southern Lebanon and pledged to intensify strikes against Hezbollah, in a conflict that began in October 2023 and has since caused heavy casualties and displacement in Lebanon.
Executions and Internal Crackdown in Iran
As it faced external pressure, Iran’s government continued a severe internal crackdown. State media said on Monday that a man convicted over an attempt to storm a military facility and access an armoury during nationwide anti-government unrest in January had been executed, after the supreme court upheld his sentence. The man was named as Ali Fahim.
This execution brings the total to at least four people put to death in connection with the same incident, following the executions of Amirhossein Hatami earlier last week and Mohammadamin Biglari and Shahin Vahedparast on Sunday. Another man linked to the case is believed to face execution in the coming days, according to Amnesty International.
The rights group issued a stark condemnation of Tehran’s actions, stating it was unconscionable that even as Iranians reel from war, the authorities continue to “weaponise the death penalty to eradicate dissenting voices and further terrify people”. Amnesty International said several defendants were facing execution over the January unrest, adding that detainees in such cases had been subjected to torture and “grossly unfair trials”. The January protests, which authorities described as acts by “rioters” against national security, were met with the biggest crackdown in the Islamic republic’s history, with some estimates suggesting more than 30,000 people were killed.
The economic ramifications of the crisis continued to reverberate globally. Crude oil prices opened higher on Monday following Trump’s threats, with West Texas Intermediate rising 1.86% to $113.62 a barrel and North Sea Brent crude climbing 1.16% to $110.30 a barrel. The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz—a critical chokepoint for nearly a third of the world’s seaborne oil—has been described as the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market, risking a return to 1970s-style energy crisis conditions with supply shortages, inflation, and recession.
