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Senator Ron Johnson said he hoped President Trump was making empty threats, but most in the G.O.P. cheered his warning that Iran's "whole civilization" would be wiped out.
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We speak with two Iranian scholars ahead of an 8 p.m. ET deadline set by President Donald Trump for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face destruction of all its power plants, bridges and other civilian infrastructure. Twelve hours ahead of the deadline, the president posted on social media, "A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don't want that to happen, but it probably will."
Iran has blocked most maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war, leading to a sharp increase in oil and gas prices around the world. Mohammad Eslami, a research fellow at the University of Tehran, and Zeynab Malakouti, a senior fellow at the Global Peace Institute at the National University of Singapore, say Iran is likely to maintain long-term control over the strait even after the fighting stops.
"While Donald Trump and the U.S. Army and the Israeli army are focused on the battle, Iranians are thinking about the war," says Eslami, adding that Iran has prepared for "at least three months of war," while rising oil prices will make it increasingly difficult for the U.S. to sustain the fighting.
"Iran sees the Strait of Hormuz as a longer-term strategic lever, especially for the postwar period," adds Malakouti, speaking from Shanghai.
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