Trump gives Iran 48 hours on Hormuz, threatens power plants

President Donald Trump threatened to attack Iran’s power plants if the country didn’t swiftly reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial ship traffic after the passage of oil and gas cargoes has been paralyzed.

Trump said in a social media post Saturday evening that he would “hit and obliterate” Iran’s power plants, beginning with the biggest one, if it didn’t open the strait within 48 hours.

The comments from Trump, on his Truth Social media platform, marked a dramatic escalation in the US president’s rhetoric about the strait, a day after he said he was thinking about “winding down” the military operation and that the responsibility for policing Hormuz would fall to the countries reliant on shipping through the corridor.

Threats have nearly ground shipments of commodities to a halt through the Strait of Hormuz, which provides transit for roughly 20% of the world’s oil and gas. The resulting energy supply shock has sent crude prices soaring, with international benchmark Brent futures closing at $112.19 on Friday.

The declaration also comes despite Trump’s appeal for a halt in Israel’s strikes on energy assets in the region, which risk inspiring retaliatory attacks by Iran on oil and gas infrastructure and further limiting the flow of those supplies to world markets.

The region’s energy assets have increa...