CAIRO (AP) — President Donald Trump warned the U.S. will "obliterate" power plants in Iran if the Islamic Republic doesn't fully open the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours, while Iranian missiles struck two communities not far from Israel's main nuclear research center late Saturday, leaving buildings shattered and dozens injured in the attacks.
APTOPIX Israel Iran War
The developments signaledthe warwas moving in a dangerous new direction at the start of its fourth week.
Trump, who issued the ultimatum in a social media post while he spent the weekend at his Florida home, said he's giving Iran 48 hours to open the vital waterway or face a new round of attacks. He said the U.S. would destroy "various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!"
Iran warned early Sunday that any strike on its energy facilities would prompt attacks on U.S. and Israeli energy and infrastructure assets in the region, according to a statement citing an Iranian military spokesperson carried by state media and semiofficial outlets.
TheStrait of Hormuz,which connects the Persian Gulf to the rest of the globe's oceans, is a critical pathway for theworld's flow of oil. Attackson commercial shipsand threats of further strikes have stopped nearly all tankers from carrying oil, gasand other goodsthrough the passage, leading to cuts in output from some of the world's largest oil producers, because their crude has nowhere to go.
Iran strikes area near Israeli nuclear site
Israel's military said it was not able to intercept missiles that hit the southern cities of Dimona and Arad, the largest near the center in Israel's sparsely populated Negev desert. It was the first time Iranian missiles penetrated Israel's air defense systems in the area around the nuclear site.
"If the Israeli regime is unable to intercept missiles in the heavily protected Dimona area, it is, operationally, a sign of entering a new phase of the battle," Iran's Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on X before word of the Arad strike spread.
Rescue workers said the direct hit in Arad caused widespread damage across at least 10 apartment buildings, three of them badly damaged and in danger of collapsing. At least 64 people were taken to hospitals.
Dimona is about 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of the nuclear research center and Arad around 35 kilometers (22 miles) north.
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Israel is believed to be theonly Middle East nation with nuclear weapons, though its leaders refuse to confirm or deny their existence. The U.N. nuclear watchdog said on X it had not received reports of damage to the Israeli center or abnormal radiation levels.
The Iranian strikes in Israel came after Tehran'smain nuclear enrichment site at Natanzwas hit earlier in the day.
Israel denies responsibility for attack on Natanz
Israel earlier Saturday denied responsibility for the strike on Natanz, nearly 220 kilometers (135 miles) southeast of Tehran. The Iranian judiciary's official news agency, Mizan, said there was no leakage.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has said the bulk of Iran's estimated 970 pounds (440 kilograms) of enriched uranium is elsewhere, beneath the rubble at its Isfahan facility. It said on X it was looking into the strike.
The Pentagon declined to comment on the strike on Natanz, which was also hit in the first week of the war and in the12-day warlast June. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said such strikes posed a "real risk of catastrophic disaster throughout the Middle East."
The U.S. and Israel haveoffered shifting rationalesfor the war, fromhoping to foment an uprisingthat topples Iran's leadership to eliminating itsnuclear and missile programsand its support for armed proxies. There have been no signs of an uprising, while internet restrictions limit information from Iran.
The war's effects are felt far beyond the Middle East,raising food and fuel prices.
Lawless reported from London and Lidman from Jerusalem. Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.