Israel nuclear site hit, Trump threatens Iran power plants

President Donald Trump on Saturday said the U.S. will “obliterate” Iranian power plants if it doesn’t fully open the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours.

Trump issued the ultimatum in a social media post while he spent the weekend in Florida.

He said he’s giving Iran exactly 48 hours to open the vital waterway or face a new round of attacks. He said the US would destroy “various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!”

Trump faces increasing pressure to secure the strait as oil prices soar.

Iran struck two communities near Israel’s main nuclear research site late Saturday, leaving several people seriously injured, hours after its own Natanz main nuclear enrichment site was hit, as the war spun into a dangerous new direction at the start of its fourth week.

It marked the first time in the war that Israel’s nuclear research center has been targeted.

The Israeli military said its defenses were not able to intercept missiles that hit the southern cities of Dimona and Arad. Dozens of people were injured, emergency services said.

“The war is not close to ending,” said Israel’s army chief, Gen. Eyal Zamir.

Iran’s health ministry said more than 1,500 people have been killed there so far, the state broadcaster reported.

Earlier, Iran targeted the joint U.K.-U.S. Diego Garcia military base in the Indian Ocean about 2,500 miles away, suggesting that Tehran has missiles that can go farther than previously acknowledged — or that it had used its space program for an improvised launch.

Residents said Iran’s capital saw heavy airstrikes as they marked the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

The U.S. and Israel have offered shifting rationales for the war, from hoping to foment an uprising that topples Iran’s leadership to eliminating its nuclear and missile programs and its support for armed proxies. There have been no signs of an uprising, while internet restrictions limit information from Iran.

It is not clear how much damage Iran has sustained in the U.S. and Israeli strikes that began Feb. 28 — or even who is truly in charge. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen in public since being named to the role.

The joint British-U.S. base in the Indian Ocean is almost 4,000 miles away. Iran previously limited the range of its ballistic missile program to 1,240 miles, but U.S. officials have said Iran’s system for satellite launches could extend their range.

Iran’s Simorgh space launch vehicle could offer greater range “at the likely cost of terminal accuracy,” said Justin Bronk, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a defense think tank.

“Ballistic missiles are space rockets. They launch, they go really high up, and they come down really fast,” said Steve Prest, a retired Royal Navy commodore. “If you’ve got a space program, you’ve got a ballistic missile program.”

Prest said the launches were likely a message of defiance, to say “look what we can do,” in response to President Donald Trump’s claims that Iran’s military has been obliterated.

Israeli military officials said that Iran targeted Diego Garcia Island with a two-stage intercontinental ballistic missile. This refers to missile with at least two rocket engines, one allowing the missile to reach space, and the other propelling it to its target, at a range of up to 2,500 miles.

“These missiles are not intended to strike Israel. Their range extends to the capitals of Europe — Berlin, Paris, and Rome are all within direct threat range,” Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said on Saturday evening.

The Diego Garcia air base is home to about 2,500 mostly American personnel and has supported U.S. military operations from Vietnam to Iraq, Afghanistan and strikes on Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

Diego Garcia is part of the Chagos Islands, a remote archipelago in the middle of the Indian Ocean off the tip of India. The islands have been under British control since 1814.

The Israeli military denied that Israel was responsible for a strike that hit Iran’s Natanz nuclear enrichment facility. An official Iranian news agency reported on Saturday that the site was damaged in an airstrike but there was no radiation leakage. The Israeli military said it wasn’t aware of Israeli strikes in that region, and the Pentagon declined to comment.

The denial came as Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a video statement that next week, “the intensity of the attacks” by Israel and the United States against Iran’s ruling theocracy will “increase significantly.”

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called strikes on the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility “a brazen violation of international law.”

In a statement posted on the ministry’s website Saturday, Zakharova said such “irresponsible actions” posed a “real risk of catastrophic disaster throughout the Middle East” and were “clearly aimed at further undermining peace, stability, and security in the region.”

President Donald Trump frequently contradicts himself, sometimes in the same speech, social media post, or even sentence. In the past 24 hours, he sent a torrent of mixed signals about the Iran war, raising more questions about the direction of the conflict and his administration’s strategy.

Within the space of a few hours Friday, Trump said he was considering winding down the war, his administration confirmed it was sending more troops to the Middle East, and, in an effort to lessen the economic impact on global energy markets, the United States lifted sanctions on some Iranian oil for the first time in decades — relieving some of the pressure that Washington traditionally has used as leverage.

The confusing combination of actions deepens a sense among Trump’s critics that there is no clear, long-term strategy for the war the U.S. and Israel launched against Iran. Now in its fourth week, the war remains on an unpredictable path and a credible endgame is unclear even as the global economy is being roiled.

The U.S. announcement that it will lift sanctions on Iranian crude stranded at sea is an attempt to manipulate the market, since there is no such oil, Iran’s Oil Ministry spokesperson, Saman Ghodousi, told Iran’s state media.

“At present, Iran essentially has no crude oil left in floating storage or any surplus available for supply to other international markets, and the U.S. Treasury Secretary’s remarks are solely intended to reassure buyers and manage the market psychologically,” he said late Friday.

Trump’s fellow Republicans appear unlikely to directly challenge him, even as the conflict drags on. House Speaker Mike Johnson has said the military operation will be over quickly.

“I do think the original mission is virtually accomplished now,” Johnson (R., La.) told the AP and others at the Capitol this week. “We were trying to take out the ballistic missiles, and their means of production, and neuter the navy, and those objectives have been met.”

Johnson acknowledged that Iran’s ability to threaten ships in the Strait of Hormuz is “dragging it out a little bit,” especially as U.S. allies have largely rebuffed the president’s request for help, but said, “As soon as we bring some calm to the situation, I think it’s all but done.”

The Republican president’s decision to launch the U.S.-Israel-led war with Iran is testing the resolve of the Congress, which is controlled by his party.

Under the War Powers Act, the president can conduct military operations for 60 days without approval from Congress. So far, Republicans have easily voted down several resolutions from Democrats designed to halt the military campaign.

But the administration will need to show a more comprehensive strategy ahead or risk blowback from Congress, lawmakers said, especially as they are simultaneously being asked to approve billions in new spending.

Trump took the United States to war without a vote of support from Congress, but lawmakers are increasingly questioning when, how, and at what cost the war with Iran will come to an end.

Three weeks into the conflict, the toll is increasing: At least 13 U.S. military personnel have died, and more than 230 have been wounded. A $200 billion Pentagon request for war funds is pending at the White House. Allies are under attack, oil prices are spiking, and thousands of U.S. troops are deploying to the Middle East with no endgame in sight.

“The real question is: What ultimately are we trying to accomplish?” Sen. Thom Tillis (R., N.C.) told the Associated Press. “I generally support anything that takes out the mullahs,” he said. “But at the end of the day, there has to be a kind of strategic articulation of the strategy, what our objectives are.”

The head of U.S. Central Command says in his latest video update on the war that U.S. forces “remain on plan to eliminate Iran’s ability to project meaningful power outside its borders.”

Adm. Brad Cooper also detailed steps taken to undermine Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway vital to international commerce such as oil shipments.

He said in a post on X that earlier in the week, multiple 5,000-pound bombs were dropped on an underground facility along Iran’s coastline that was used to store anti-ship cruise missiles, mobile missile launchers, and other equipment “that presented a dangerous risk to international shipping.”

Cooper says intelligence support sites and missile radar relays used to monitor ship movements were destroyed.

“Iran’s ability to threaten freedom of navigation in and around the Strait of Hormuz is degraded as a result and we will not stop pursuing these targets,” he says in the video.

Cooper also said, “We have built the most extensive air defense umbrella in the world over the Middle East right now.”

Countries including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, the U.K., Germany, France, Japan, South Korea, and Australia have also condemned Iran’s attacks on commercial vessels as well as oil and gas facilities in the region.

“The effects of Iran’s actions will be felt by people in all parts of the world, especially the most vulnerable,” they said in a joint statement Saturday.