DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Israel attacked a key petrochemical plant at Iran’s massive South Pars natural gas field and killed a top Revolutionary Guard commander, putting into question the negotiations aimed at getting the U.S. and Tehran to reach a ceasefire.
Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed what he called “a powerful strike on the largest petrochemical facility in Iran” that's responsible for half of the country's petrochemical production. Israel’s military spokesperson, Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, said there would be “no immunity” for Iran as talks progress.
The gas field shared with Qatar is the world’s largest and sits under the waters of the Persian Gulf.
The White House did not immediately respond when asked about the strike. After Israel’s attack in March on South Pars, Trump said Israel would not attack it again but warned that if Iran continued striking Qatar’s energy infrastructure, the United States would retaliate and “massively blow up the entirety” of the field.
Trump’s deadline for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz looms while mediators scramble to get the U.S. and Iran to agree to a new ceasefire proposal.
Explosions rang out in Tehran and low-flying jets could be heard for hours as the capital was pounded. Thick black smoke rose near the city’s Azadi Square after one airstrike hit the grounds of the Sharif University of Technology.
Among those killed in one of the attacks on Tehran was the head of intelligence for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Maj. Gen. Majid Khademi, according to Iranian state media and Israel's defense minister.
Israel’s military said it also killed the leader of the Iranian paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s undercover unit in its expeditionary Quds Force, Asghar Bakeri.
Iranian missiles hit the northern Israeli city of Haifa, where four people were found dead in the rubble of a residential building.
Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia all activated their air defenses to intercept incoming Iranian missiles and drones, as Tehran kept up the pressure on its Gulf neighbors. Iran's regular attacks on regional energy infrastructure and its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is shipped in peacetime, has sent global energy prices soaring.
Under pressure at home as consumers are growing increasingly concerned, Trump gave Tehran a deadline that expires Monday night Washington time, saying if no deal was reached to reopen the strait, the U.S. would hit Iran's power plants and other infrastructure targets and set the country “back to the stone ages.”
“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran,” he threatened in a social media post, adding that if Iran did not open the strait “you'll be living in Hell.”
In an effort to stop the fighting, Egyptian, Pakistani and Turkish mediators have sent Iran and the U.S. a proposal calling for a 45-day ceasefire and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to give time to try and find a way to end the war, two Mideast officials have told The Associated Press.
Iran and the U.S. have not responded to the proposal, sent late Sunday night to both Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, the officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private negotiations.
Trump's deadline to open Hormuz strait looms but no signs of Tehran backing off
European Council President António Costa called for diplomacy to be given a chance, writing on X that “any targeting of civilian infrastructure, namely energy facilities, is illegal and unacceptable.”
“Escalation will not achieve a ceasefire and peace,” he said. “Only negotiations will, namely the ongoing efforts led by regional partners.”
Trump has at times demanded that Iran reopen the strait or face a significant escalation in bombing from the U.S. while at other times said it was not up to Washington to force the waterway open or even that the war could end without it being reopened.
He has also given multiple deadlines to Iran on the issue, and after the threat he posted Sunday he later posted a single line saying “Tuesday, 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time!” It was not clear whether that meant he had extended the deadline another day.
Tehran has shown no signs of backing down from its stranglehold on shipping through the strait, which was fully open before Israel and the U.S. attacked Iran on Feb. 28 to start the war.
Following Trump’s expletive-laced posts on Easter Sunday, Iran’s parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf called the threats of targeting Iran’s infrastructure “reckless.”
“You won’t gain anything through war crimes,” Qalibaf wrote on X. “The only real solution is respecting the rights of the Iranian people and ending this dangerous game.”
Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose to $109 in early Monday spot trading, some 50% higher than it was when the war started.
Iran has let some vessels through the strait since the war began, but none belonging to the U.S., Israel or countries perceived as helping them. Some have paid Iran for passage and the overall flow of traffic is down more than 90% over the same period last year.
Airstrikes kill more than 25 across Iran
One of Monday's morning airstrikes targeted Tehran's Sharif University of Technology, where Iranian media reported damage to the buildings as well as a natural gas distribution site next to the campus.
It wasn’t immediately clear what had been targeted on the grounds of the university, which is empty of students as the war has forced all schools into the country into online classes. However, multiple countries over the years have sanctioned the university for its work with the military, particularly on Iran’s ballistic missile program, which is controlled by the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
Following the confirmation that the Guard's intelligence chief had been killed in one strike, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed to keep targeting top-ranking Iranian officials. “Iran’s leaders live with a sense of being targeted," Katz said. "We will continue to hunt them down one by one.”
A strike near Eslamshar, southwest of Tehran, killed at least 15 people, authorities said. Five others were killed when a residential area in the city of Qom was hit, and six more were killed in strikes on other cities, the state-run IRAN daily newspaper reported.
Three more people were killed when an airstrike hit a home in Tehran, Iranian state television reported.
In Lebanon, where Israel has launched regular air attacks and a ground invasion that it says are targeting the Iran-linked Hezbollah militia group, an airstrike hit an apartment in the town of Ain Saadeh, east of Beirut. The attack killed an official in Lebanese Forces, a Christian political party strongly opposed to Hezbollah, his wife and another woman.
War's death toll in the thousands
More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began, but its government has not updated the toll for days.
More than 1,400 people have been killed in Lebanon and more than 1 million people have been displaced. Eleven Israeli soldiers have died there while targeting Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants.
In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 23 have been reported dead in Israel and 13 U.S. service members have been killed.
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Rising reported from Bangkok and Magdy from Cairo. Isabel DeBre in Ain Saadeh, Lebanon, contributed to this story.
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