TEHRAN – Iran yesterday threatened to attack key infrastructure across the Middle East if US President Donald Trump follows through on his vow to “obliterate” the Islamic republic’s power plants unless the Strait of Hormuz swiftly reopens.
Iran’s defiant response came after its missiles slipped through air defences and struck two towns in southern Israel including one housing a nuclear facility, underscoring Tehran’s continued ability to retaliate as the war entered its fourth week.
Trump ratcheted up pressure on Iran’s leadership, announcing a countdown over the Islamic republic’s de facto blockade on the crucial trade route.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that the US wouald “hit and obliterate” Iranian power plants “starting with the biggest one first” if Tehran did not fully reopen the strait within 48 hours, or 23:44 GMT on Monday according to the time of his post.
But Iran’s military operational command responded that if the country’s facilities were hit, “all energy, information technology and desalination infrastructure belonging to the US” in the region would be targeted.
Early Sunday morning, AFP journalists in Jerusalem heard blasts and air raid sirens as Iran launched a fresh barrage of missiles at Israel.
The alerts came hours after direct hits on the towns of Arad and Dimona wounded more than 100 people, in one of the most destructive attacks on Israel since the start of the war on 28 February.
“There was a ‘boom, boom!’, my mother was screaming,” 17-year-old Arad resident Ido Franky told AFP near the impact site, where an AFP correspondent saw three damaged buildings and firefighters reported a blaze.
“This was terrifying… this town had never seen anything like this.”
Israel launched a fresh wave of strikes on Iranian capital Tehran yesterday in response, while the Israeli military said it was investigating how air defence systems had failed to intercept the incoming missiles.
Iran’s attacks on Israel indicated that its arsenal still poses a threat across the region, even after Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed to have decimated Tehran’s forces.
Dimona hosts what is widely believed to be the Middle East’s only nuclear arsenal, although Israel has never admitted to possessing nuclear weapons, insisting the site is for research.
The missile fell about five kilometres (three miles) from the nuclear facility, according to rescuers.
Iran said the strike on Dimona, which tore open residential buildings and gouged craters into the ground was in response to an earlier attack on its nuclear site at Natanz.
After the Natanz attack, UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi reiterated his call for “military restraint to avoid any risk of a nuclear accident”.
The Natanz facility hosts underground centrifuges used to enrich uranium for Iran’s disputed nuclear programme and sustained damage in the June 2025 war.
Asked about Natanz, the Israeli military said it was “not aware of a strike”.
– Nampa/AFP