U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday appeared to push back his deadline for Iran to reach an agreement on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, posting a vague message simply reading “Tuesday, 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time!”
The new deadline, 0000 GMT Wednesday, would push back his ultimatum on Tehran by one day, after which Trump has vowed to destroy the country's power plants and bridges.
In a social media post, Trump vowed to hit Iran's power plants and bridges and said the country would be "living in Hell" if the Strait of Hormuz, crucial for global trade, isn't opened by Tuesday.
Trump has issued such deadlines before but extended them when mediators have claimed progress toward ending the war, which has killed thousands, shaken global markets and spiked fuel prices in just over five weeks.
"It seems Trump has become a phenomenon that neither Iranians nor Americans are able to fully analyze," Iranian Culture Minister Sayed Reza Salihi-Amiri told visiting Associated Press journalists in an interview in Tehran, adding that the president "constantly shifts between contradictory positions."
The war, which erupted on February 28 with deadly US-Israeli strikes on Tehran, has engulfed the Middle East and convulsed the global economy.
Iranian missiles have hit Israeli cities and economic infrastructure in the Gulf, sending world energy prices soaring.
