Trump says he's postponing US strikes on Iranian power plants after 'productive' talks with Tehran

LAST UPDATE | 1 hr ago

US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has postponed possible US strikes on Iranian power plants for five more days following “very good and productive” discussions.

Over the last two days, US and Iranian officials have had “very good and productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East,” Trump wrote in a post this morning on his Truth Social platform.

Trump added that he had “instructed the US Department of Defense to “postpone and all all military strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure” for a five day period, though he said this would be “subject to the success of the ongoing meetings and discussions.”

Trump had set a 48-hour deadline late on Saturday evening for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial route to oil and other exports.

Iran had said that the strait would be “completely closed” immediately if the US followed up on Trump’s threat to attack its power plants.

The developments signalled the war, which the US and Israel launched on 28 February, was moving in a dangerous new direction, despite Trump’s comment last week that he was considering “winding down” operations.

Iran has practically closed the strait since early March, while claiming safe passage for vessels from countries other than its enemies.

Roughly one-fifth of global oil supply passes through the strait, but attacks on ships have stopped nearly all tanker traffic.

Trump said if Iran did not open the strait, the US would destroy its “various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!”

The US has argued that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard controls much of the country’s infrastructure and uses it to power the war effort.

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Under international law, power plants that benefit civilians can be targeted only if the military advantage outweighs the suffering it causes them, legal scholars say.

Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf responded on X that if Iran’s power plants and infrastructure are targeted, then vital infrastructure across the region, including energy and desalination facilities critical for drinking water in Gulf nations, would be considered legitimate targets and “irreversibly destroyed”.

Qalibaf later added that “entities that finance the US military budget are legitimate targets”.

Attacks on power plants would be “inherently indiscriminate and clearly disproportionate”, Iran’s UN ambassador wrote to the security council, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.

Iran’s state media published infographics of power plants in other Middle Eastern nations that its forces could target, in response to Trump’s threats.

One infographic was titled “Say goodbye to electricity!” and showed potential targets in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait.

Other maps showed Orot Rabin and Rutenberg, Israel’s two largest power plants.

More than 1,500 have been killed in Iran since the war began, state media reported on Saturday, citing the ministry.

In Israel, 15 people have been killed.

More than a dozen civilians in the occupied West Bank and Gulf Arab states have been killed in strikes.

Additional reporting from Press Association

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