Gulf braces for violent night as Trump deadline on Iran looms

Power plants and oil installations on both sides of the Gulf are girding against the probability of attacks tonight as U.S. President Donald Trump’s deadline for Iran to lift its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz ticks down.

Trump said at a White House news conference on Monday that, barring Iran’s compliance, the coming U.S. air assault would ensure that every power plant in the Islamic Republic will be “out of business, burning, exploding and never to be used again.”

The President set 8 p.m. EDT (4 a.m. GST) as the deadline for Iran to open the Gulf waterway, where about 20 million barrels of oil – 20% of world demand – flowed through every day before the conflict started Feb. 28. Oil prices rose as much as 1% today, with the benchmark Brent crude reaching $1.11 a barrel, a 50% increase over the past five weeks.

Iran, in turn, rejected Trump’s ceasefire terms and said it would retaliate by attacking energy facilities in U.S.-aligned Gulf states and Israel. Oil and gas plants owned by Aramco and ADNOC have been damaged in previous Iranian attacks. Saudi Arabia said today that it intercepted seven ballistic missiles from Iran, with ​debris falling near energy facilities.

The head of the International Energy Agency, meanwhile, said the ‌current oil and gas crisis  is “more serious than the ​ones in 1973, ​1979 and 2022 together.” IEA Chief Fatih Birol told ⁠Le Figaro in Paris that the ‌countries most at risk are developing ⁠nations, which will suffer from higher oil and gas prices, higher food prices and a general acceleration of inflation.