President Donald Trump said Sunday that if no peace deal is reached with Iran in the next 48 hours, "we're blowing up the entire country."
The president made the threat Sunday to ABC News' senior political correspondent Rachel Scott in response to a question regarding whether his previously stated timeline of two to three weeks for a deal was still accurate.
Concerns have been raised about targeting civilian infrastructure in Iran and the consequences that could bring."It should be days, not weeks," Trump said, adding that Iran "has been decimated, decimated. And every day is going to get worse."
"Every day they're gonna have to build more bridges, and they're gonna have to build more power plants and more everything else," the president said. "There's been no country that's ever taken a pounding like that."
Watch special coverage onNightline, "War with Iran," each night on ABC and streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.
Trump said Iran had 48 hours to agree to a deal to open the Strait of Hormuz or make peace.
"If it happens, it happens. And if it doesn't, we're blowing up the whole country. We're blowing up, as I said, it's going to be bridge day and it's going to be power plant day in the country of Iran."
The president was apparently referring to anultimatumhe posted Sunday on his social media platform for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz.
Having already extended his deadline to open the strait twice, Trump warned the Iranian government that if it doesn't fully open the critical maritime passageway for oil and trade by Tuesday, "you'll be living in Hell."
"Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!!" Trump wrote in the profanity-laced post. He warned Tehran that if it fails to open the strait, "you'll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH!"
On March 26, Trumpextended an ultimatuma second time in the same week for Iran to completely open the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping traffic, saying peace talks "are going very well." In the post, Trump said that upon a request from the Iranian government, he was "pausing the period of Energy Plant destruction by 10 days."
Trump extended the deadline for Iran to comply to Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET.Fox News reported Sunday that Trump said in a telephone interview that he thinks a deal with Iran will come by Monday, and that if Iran fails to make a deal, he is "considering blowing everything up and taking over the oil."
But in his phone interview later Sunday with ABC News' Rachel Scott, Trump pushed back on that characterization, saying "there could be a deal, and there could also not be a deal. I don't know. I have no idea what these people, they're getting the s--- beat out of them, and that's, that's all I can tell you. There's been no country that's ever taken a pounding like that."
The president also said "very little" will be off limits if no deal is made.
Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Iranian parliament, responded to Trump's threats in apost on X.
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"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," Ghalibaf wrote.
"Make no mistake: You won't gain anything through war crimes. The only real solution is respecting the rights of the Iranian people and ending this dangerous game," the post further said.
The U.S. has sent Iran a 15-point proposal for ending the conflict. The negotiations are being mediated by the Pakistani government.
On March 25, Iran's English-language state media, Press TV, quoted an Iranian official saying Iran has rejected the proposal after regime officials denied negotiations were happening. In a separate interview on the same day, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on state TV that "Iran's power is the Hormuz Strait."
"I also want to say here that, from our point of view, the Hormuz Strait is not completely closed; it is closed only to our natural enemies," Araghchi said after Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed in a March 22 letter to the U.N.'s International Maritime Organization that theStrait of Hormuz is open to "non-hostile" vessels.
In the letter, the Iranians define "non-hostile" ships as those from countries that "neither participate nor support acts of aggression against Iran" posed by the United States and Israel.
"We are in a wartime situation; the region is a war zone," Araghchi said. "There is no reason to allow the ships of our enemies and their allies to pass, but it is free for the rest."In a social mediapost on Saturday, Araghchi said, "We are deeply grateful to Pakistan for its efforts and have never refused to go to Islamabad. What we care about are the terms of a conclusive and lasting END to the illegal war that is imposed on us."
UN says 20,000 seafarers stranded due to Strait of Hormuz closure, despite Iran claiming it's open
During aMarch 26 cabinet meeting, Trump claimed that Iran is "begging to make a deal" to end the conflict.
Trump said at the cabinet meeting that Iran had made good on a promise to allow 10 oil tankers operating under the flag of Pakistan to pass through the strait as a "present." He said the gesture communicated to him "that we're dealing with the right people" in the peace negotiations.
While Iran has allowed other ships from countries it says are friendly to Iran to pass through the strait, it has attacked ships from countries it considers hostile.
Why are your gas prices rising if the US barely imports any oil from the Strait of Hormuz?
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iran's military wing,said on Saturdaythat it hit an Israeli-linked container ship, the MSC Ishyka, with a drone near the Strait of Hormuz. Neither Israel nor the U.S. has yet publicly confirmed the attack.
In anaddress to the nationon Wednesday night, Trump declared that Iran is no longer a threat to the U.S. and the war in Iran is "nearing completion." In the speech, the president promised to hit Iran "extremely hard" over the next two to three weeks.
"We're going to bring them back to the stone ages where they belong," Trump said.
In response, Araghchiissued a social media poston Thursday, saying, "There's one striking difference between the present and the Stone Age: there was no oil or gas being pumped in the Middle East back then."Araghchi added, "Are POTUS and Americans who put him in office sure that they want to turn back the clock?"
President Donald Trump said Sunday that if no peace deal is reached with Iran in the next 48 hours, "we're blowi...
