Iran calls for human chains around power plants as Trump's deadline nears

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — With U.S. President Donald Trump's deadline rapidly approaching for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face the massive bombing of the country's infrastructure, Iran on Tuesday urged youths to form human chains around power plants and its president said 14 million people had answered calls to volunteer to fight.

Trump has threatened to bomb all of Iran's power plants and bridges if Iran does not meet his Tuesday 8 p.m. EDT deadline to allow shipping traffic to fully resume through the strategic waterway, through which a fifth of the world's oil transits in peacetime.

“The entire country can be taken out in one night,” Trump said. Trump has repeatedly extended previous deadlines, but suggested this one was final, saying he’d already given Iran enough extra time.

Well before the deadline, renewed American and Israeli airstrikes hit targets across the country, killing nearly three dozen people.

Israel's military said it had attacked a Iranian petrochemical site in Shiraz, the second day in a row it had hit such a facility after striking an offshore plant at the South Pars natural gas field. Israel also issued a Farsi-language warning telling Iranians to avoid trains, throughout the day, likely telegraphing intended strikes on the rail network.

Another strike hit the Khorramabad International Airport in western Iran, and a strike on an unidentified target in Alborz province, northwest of Tehran, killed 18 people, according to state media.

Iran choked off shipping through the Strait of Hormuz after Israel and the U.S. attacked on Feb. 28, starting the war. It has already rejected a 45-day ceasefire proposal and said it wants a permanent end to the war.

No sign Iran will back down ahead of deadline

With the deadline hours away, Iran showed no signs of backing down with President Masoud Pezeshkian posting on X that 14 million Iranians had answered state media and text message campaigns urging people to volunteer to fight in case of a ground invasion by the U.S. and Israel - double previous figures.

“More than 14 million Iranian people have declared their readiness to sacrifice their lives,” Pezeshkian wrote. “I too have been, am, and will remain ready to give my life for Iran.”

France joined a growing chorus of international voices calling for restraint, with Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot saying attacks targeting civilian and energy infrastructure “are barred by the rules of war, international law.”

“They would without doubt trigger a new phase of escalation, of reprisals, that would drag the region and the world economy into a vicious circle that would be very worrying and, most of all, very damaging to our own interests,” the minister said on France Info television.

Early Tuesday, Tehran launched seven ballistic missiles at Saudi Arabia, which authorities said rained debris on the ground near energy facilities as they were intercepted. Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Turki al-Malki said the damage was being assessed.

The attacks prompted Saudi Arabia to close the King Fahd Causeway, a bridge that links Saudi Arabia to the island kingdom of Bahrain for several hours. The 25-kilometer (15.5 mile) bridge is the only connection by road for Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, to the Arabian Peninsula.

Elsewhere, activists reported a new wave of strikes on Tehran, for which Israel later claimed responsibility. Nine people were killed in the city of Shahriar and six more in Pardis in other airstrikes, Iranian media reported.

Iran also fired on Israel, with reports of incoming missiles in Tel Aviv and Eilat.

Trump's threats to bomb civilian infrastructure prompt warnings of war crimes

Iran's attacks on the energy infrastructure of its Gulf Arab neighbors, coupled with its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, has sent oil prices skyrocketing and is causing global economic problems.

In early spot trading, Brent crude, the international standard, was above $111 per barrel, up more than 50% since the start of the war.

Under growing pressure at home as consumers feel the pinch, Trump has demanded that Iran open the Strait of Hormuz to all shipping traffic or see power plants and bridges wiped out. The threat to hit civilian infrastructure has sparked widespread warnings about possible war crimes.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on Tuesday urged Trump not to follow through, saying the “focus needs to be on not seeing this conflict expand any further.”

“Any of those actions including bombing bridges and reservoirs and civilian infrastructure would be unacceptable,” Luxon told Radio New Zealand.

Iran sought to up the ante, calling on “all young people, athletes, artists, students and university students and their professors” to form human chains around power plants ahead of the threatened strikes.

“Power plants that are our national assets and capital, regardless of any taste or political viewpoint, belong to the future of Iran and to the Iranian youth,” Alireza Rahimi, identified by Iranian state television as the secretary of the Supreme Council of Youth and Adolescents, said as he issued the video call in a newscast.

Iran has formed human chains in the past around its nuclear sites at times of heightened tensions with the West.

Later, a Revolutionary Guard general urged parents to send their children to man checkpoints, which have been repeatedly targeted in airstrikes.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned the U.S. that attacks on civilian infrastructure are banned under international law, according to his spokesperson. Trump, speaking with reporters, said he’s “not at all” concerned about committing war crimes with such attacks.

As the deadline neared, efforts were still underway to reach a negotiated solution. Even though Iran has rejected the latest proposal from the U.S., officials involved in the diplomacy say that talks are still ongoing.

Death toll continues to rise across the region

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began, but the government has not updated the toll for days.