<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Airstrikes hit two bridges and a train station in </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/iran" rel="" target="" title="Iran"><span>Iran</span></a><span> on Tuesday, and Iranian officials urged young people to form human chains to protect power plants, as US President </span><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/donald-trump" rel="" target="" title="Donald Trump"><span>Donald Trump</span></a><span> warned that a "whole civilisation will die tonight" if Tehran does not meet his latest deadline for the Islamic Republic to agree to a deal that includes reopening the crucial Strait of Hormuz.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Trump has extended previous deadlines but suggested the one set for 8pm in Washington was final, and the rhetoric on both sides reached a fever pitch, leaving Iranians on edge. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Trump threatened to destroy all of Iran's power plants and bridges if Tehran does not allow traffic to fully resume in the strait, through which a fifth of the world's oil transits in peacetime.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/israeli-consulate-istanbul-shooting-gunmen-attack-building-housing-israeli-consulate-in-istanbul/5f648e03-4459-4fbe-a207-eb39d8e12a73"><strong><span>Gunfight erupts outside Israeli consulate in Istanbul</span></strong></a><strong><span></span></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Iran's president said 14 million people, including himself, have volunteered to fight.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It was not clear if the latest airstrikes were linked to Trump's threat to attack bridges. At least two of the targets were connected to Iran's rail network, which Israel earlier signalled it might attack. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Israel has increasingly carried out strikes that it says are aimed at delivering a blow to Iran's economy.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/us-israel-iran-war-donald-trump-warns-a-whole-civilisation-will-die-tonight-if-a-deal-with-iran-isnt-reached/95357b64-282a-4c4b-8056-27b642794b65" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Iran, meanwhile, fired on Israel and Saudi Arabia, prompting the temporary closure of a major bridge.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>While Iran cannot match the sophistication of US and Israeli weaponry or their dominance in the air, its chokehold on the strait is causing major damage to the world economy and raising the pressure on Trump both at home and abroad to find a way out of the standoff.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Officials involved in diplomatic efforts said talks were ongoing – but Iran has rejected the latest American proposal, and it was unclear if a deal would come in time to head off Trump's threatened attacks. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>World leaders and experts warned that strikes as destructive as Trump threatened could constitute a war crime.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><span>As the deadline approaches, rhetoric ramps up</span></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"A whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again," if a deal isn't reached, Trump said in a post on Tuesday morning (night AEST), while keeping open the possibility of an off-ramp, saying that "maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Earlier, Iranian official Alireza Rahimi issued a video message calling on "all young people, athletes, artists, students and university students and their professors" to form human chains around power plants.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Iranians have formed human chains in the past around nuclear sites at times of heightened tensions with the West. This time though, it was unclear who would heed the call, and one major power plant in Tehran apparently had been closed off for security purposes at the time the demonstration was to start.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>President Masoud Pezeshkian posted on X that 14 million Iranians had answered state media and text message campaigns urging people to volunteer to fight — and said he would join them — while a general from the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard urged parents to send their children to man checkpoints.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Guard, meanwhile, warned that Iran would "deprive the US and its allies of the region's oil and gas for years" and expand its attacks across the Gulf region if Trump carries out his threat.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In Tehran, the mood was bleak. A young teacher said that many opponents of Iran's Islamic system had hoped Trump's attacks would quickly topple it.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Now, as the war drags on, she fears US and Israeli attacks will spread chaos. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"If we don't have the internet, and if we don't have electricity, water, and gas, we're really going back to the Stone Age, as Trump said," she said told The Associated Press, speaking anonymously for her safety.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><span>Trump's threat prompts warnings of war crimes</span></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot joined a growing chorus of international voices and calling for restraint, saying attacks targeting civilian and energy infrastructure "are barred by the rules of war, international law".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"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," the minister said on France Info television.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>UN Secretary-General António Guterres also warned the US that attacks on civilian infrastructure are banned under international law, according to his spokesperson.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Such cases are notoriously difficult to prosecute, and Trump told reporters he's "not at all" concerned about committing war crimes.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><span>A wave of airstrikes hits Iran, which fires on Saudi Arabia and Israel</span></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>A series of intense airstrikes pounded Tehran, including in residential neighbourhoods. Such strikes in the past have targeted Iranian government and security officials.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Israel's military said it attacked an Iranian petrochemical site in Shiraz, the second day in a row it hit such a facility. Israel also issued a Farsi-language warning telling Iranians to avoid trains throughout the day, likely telegraphing intended strikes on the rail network.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Iranian officials later said that a railway bridge, a train station and a highway bridge had been hit in airstrikes. Neither the United States not Israel immediately claimed the attacks.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Another strike hit the Khorramabad International Airport in western Iran, and an attack on an unidentified target in Alborz province, northwest of Tehran, killed 18 people, according to state media. A total of 15 people were killed in other strikes, Iranian media reported.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Early Tuesday, Tehran launched seven ballistic missiles at Saudi Arabia, which authorities said rained debris near energy facilities as they were intercepted.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The attacks prompted Saudi Arabia to temporarily close the King Fahd Causeway, the only road connection between Bahrain, home to the US Navy's 5th Fleet, and the Arabian Peninsula.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Iran also fired on Israel, with reports of incoming missiles in Tel Aviv and Eilat.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>More than 1900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began, but the government has not updated the toll for days.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, more than 1400 people have been killed. and more than 1 million people have been displaced. Eleven Israeli soldiers have died there.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 23 have been reported dead in Israel, and 13 US service members have been killed.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><span>Chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz</span></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Iran choked off shipping through the strait after Israel and the US attacked on February 28, starting the war. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>That stranglehold and Iran's attacks on the energy infrastructure of its Gulf Arab neighbours have sent oil prices skyrocketing, raising the price of gasoline, food and other basics far beyond the Middle East.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In spot trading Tuesday, Brent crude, the international standard, was above $US108 ($156) per barrel, up around 50 per cent since the start of the war.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>On Monday, Tehran rejected a 45-day ceasefire proposal and said it wants a permanent end to the war. But as Trump's deadline neared on Tuesday, an official said indirect communications between the United States and Iran remained underway. </span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The official said mediators from Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey "are racing against time" to reach a compromise before the deadline.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He said Iran has linked the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to sanctions relief, and the US was open to easing some sanctions, especially on Iran's oil sector, in part to stabilise the global oil market.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing diplomacy.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><em><span>NEVER MISS A STORY:</span></em></strong><span> </span><em><span>Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.</span></em></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><ul><li><strong><em><span>Download the 9NEWS App here via</span></em></strong><span> </span><a href="https://apps.apple.com/au/app/9news/id1010533727" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>Apple</span></em></strong></a><span> </span><strong><em><span>and</span></em></strong><span> </span><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nineNewsAlerts.nine.com&amp;hl=en_AU&amp;pli=1" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>Google Play</span></em></strong></a></li><li><strong><em><span>Make 9News your preferred source on Google by</span></em></strong><span> </span><a href="https://9.nine.com.au/8x987w" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>ticking this box here</span></em></strong></a></li><li><strong><em><span>Sign up to</span></em></strong><span> </span><a href="https://login.nine.com.au/edm?client_id=nineatnine" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>our breaking newsletter here</span></em></strong></a></li></ul></div></div>