Iran threatens to 'completely' close Strait of Hormuz and hit power
plants after Trump ultimatum
[March 23, 2026]
By ALON BERNSTEIN, SAM METZ and SAMY MAGDY
ARAD, Israel (AP) — The United States and Iran threatened to target
critical infrastructure Sunday as the war in the Middle East, now in its
fourth week, puts lives and livelihoods at risk throughout the region.
Iran said the Strait of Hormuz, crucial to oil and other exports, would
be "completely closed” immediately if the U.S. follows up on President
Donald Trump's threat to attack its power plants. Trump late Saturday
set a 48-hour deadline to open the strait.
Israeli leaders visited one of two southern communities near a secretive
nuclear research site struck by Iranian missiles late Saturday, with
scores of people wounded. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was
a “miracle” no one was killed.
Netanyahu claimed Israel and the U.S. were well on their way to
achieving their war goals. The aims have ranged from weakening Iran's
nuclear program, missile program and support for armed proxies to
enabling the Iranian people to overthrow the theocracy.
There has been no sign of an uprising, nor of an end to the fighting
that has shaken the global economy, sent oil prices surging and
endangered some of the world's busiest air corridors. The war, which the
U.S. and Israel launched Feb. 28, has killed over 2,000 people.
The Iranian-backed Hezbollah claimed responsibility for an airstrike
that killed a man in northern Israel, while Lebanese President Joseph
Aoun called Israel's new targeting of bridges in the south “a prelude to
a ground invasion.”
“More weeks of fighting against Iran and Hezbollah are expected for us,”
said Israeli military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin.
Meanwhile, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates said early Monday their
air defenses were dealing with missile and drone attacks as air raid
sirens sounded in Bahrain.
Energy and desalination plants are threatened
Iran has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz that connects the
Persian Gulf to the rest of the world, while claiming safe passage for
vessels from countries other than its enemies. Roughly one-fifth of
global oil supply passes through it, but attacks on ships have stopped
nearly all tanker traffic.
Trump said if Iran didn't open the strait, the U.S. would destroy its
“various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!”
The U.S. has argued that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard controls much of the
country’s infrastructure and uses it to power the war effort. Under
international law, power plants that benefit civilians can be targeted
only if the military advantage outweighs the suffering it causes them,
legal scholars say.
Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf responded on X that
if Iran's power plants and infrastructure are targeted, then vital
infrastructure across the region — including energy and desalination
facilities critical for drinking water in Gulf nations — would be
considered legitimate targets and “irreversibly destroyed.”
Qalibaf later added that “entities that finance the US military budget
are legitimate targets."
Attacks on power plants would be “inherently indiscriminate and clearly
disproportionate" and a war crime, Iran’s U.N. ambassador wrote to the
Security Council, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
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Israeli security forces survey the site that was struck by an
Iranian missile in Dimona, southern Israel, Sunday, March 22, 2026.
(AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Strikes in Israel and Iran bring new nuclear concerns
Iran said its strikes in the Negev Desert late Saturday were in
retaliation for the latest attack on Iran’s main nuclear enrichment
site in Natanz, according to state-run media.
Tehran praised its attack as a show of strength, even as Israel's
military asserts that Iranian missile launches have decreased since
the war began.
Southern Israel’s main hospital received at least 175 wounded from
Arad and Dimona, deputy director Roy Kessous told The Associated
Press.
Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, though it
doesn’t confirm or deny their existence.
Israel denied responsibility for hitting Natanz on Saturday. The
Pentagon declined to comment on the strike.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has said the bulk of Iran’s
estimated 972 pounds (441 kilograms) of enriched uranium — the issue
at the heart of tensions — is elsewhere, beneath the rubble at its
Isfahan facility.
Fighting intensifies in southern Lebanon
An Israeli civilian was killed in his car in the northern town of
Misgav Am in what Israel's military originally said appeared to be a
rocket attack. It later was looking into the possibility that the
death was caused by Israeli soldiers' fire.
Israeli authorities identified him as 61-year-old farmer Ofer
“Poshko” Moskovitz. Two days ago, he told a radio station that
living near the Lebanese border was like “Russian roulette."
Hezbollah launched strikes on Israel soon after the war began,
calling it retaliation for the killing of Iran's Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Israel then targeted Hezbollah with
airstrikes and expanded its ground presence in southern Lebanon.
Israel on Sunday expanded its target list to include bridges over
the Litani River that Defense Minister Israel Katz said Hezbollah is
using to move fighters and weapons to the south. Israel later struck
the Qasmiyeh bridge near Tyre, giving an hour's warning. Destroying
bridges further isolates residents from the rest of Lebanon.
Katz also ordered the military to accelerate destruction of Lebanese
homes near the border.
Lebanese authorities say Israel's strikes have killed more than
1,000 people and displaced more than 1 million. Meanwhile, Hezbollah
has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel.
Iran’s death toll in the war has surpassed 1,500, its health
ministry has said. In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian
strikes. More than a dozen civilians in the occupied West Bank and
Gulf Arab states have been killed in strikes. A Qatari military
helicopter crash on Saturday, blamed on a technical malfunction,
killed all seven aboard, Qatari authorities said.
___
Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank, and Magdy from Cairo.
Associated Press writers Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel; Koral
Saeed in Abu Snan, Israel; Isabel Debre and Sally Abou AlJoud in
Beirut; and Cara Anna in Lowville, New York, contributed to this
report.
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