A snap shot of The Iranian military command center Khatam Al-Anbiya speaking. Photo courtesy of Tasnim.
The Guard stated: "The regional partners of the United States should know that, until now, due to good neighbourliness, Iran has shown great restraint and considered various factors in choosing retaliatory targets. However, from now on, all these considerations have been lifted."
“We have not initiated attacks on civilian targets and will not; however, we will not hesitate to retaliate against despicable aggressions on civilian facilities,” the IRGC stated.
The IRGC statement comes as Iranian news agencies reported that Kharg Island, which is home to key oil facilities and handles about 90 percent of Iran’s crude exports through underwater pipelines, was targeted in a series of US and Israeli attacks on Tuesday, the agency said.
The Iranian warning to the Arab Gulf nations comes hours before the US President Trump ultimatum to bomb the country's power plants if no agreement is reached between Washington and Tehran, which is set for Tuesday at 8:00 pm (2 am CLT on Wednesday), the third such ultimatum in as many weeks to Tehran.
In recent days, Trump repeatedly threatened to bomb more civilian infrastructures of Iran into the "Stone Ages," if Tehran does not "reopen" the Strait of Hormuz to all ships.
Iran has allowed ships linked to countries that have not supported the US-Israeli war on it to pass through Hormuz, including France, Japan, Pakistan, India, Thailand, Russia, and China.
Since the start of the war on Iran on 28 February, the US and Israel have launched thousands of airstrikes targeting Iranian civilian and economic infrastructure, including thousands of residential and commercial units, schools and universities, oil depots, hospitals, and pharma and petrochemical factories.
In retaliation, Iran has launched hundreds of missiles and drone attacks on Israeli targets, US military bases, as well as oil and gas facilities in Gulf states, killing nearly three dozen and causing widespread damage.
On Monday, Iran said it had rejected an "American proposal" shared through intermediaries, which called for a 45-day ceasefire, insisting on a permanent end to the US-Israeli aggression.
In response to Trump's escalating threats, a spokesman for the Khatam Al-Anbiya central command said the US president’s “arrogant rhetoric” would not prevent Iran from continuing its military operations.
“The rude, arrogant rhetoric and baseless threats of the delusional US president… have no effect on the continuation of the offensive and crushing operations of the warriors of Islam against the American and Zionist enemies,” the spokesman said.
Iran’s Deputy Sports Minister Alireza Rahimi called for a show of national unity, urging artists and athletes to form human chains at power plants on Tuesday. “We will stand hand in hand to say: Attacking public infrastructure is a war crime,” Rahimi said.
As the countdown to Trump's most recent threat to bomb Iran's power plants, Egyptian and Pakistani foreign ministers were carrying out marathon efforts to de-escalate the conflict.
On Monday, during a phone call with Iran’s foreign minister, the prime minister of Qatar, which has been hit hard by Iranian missile and drone attacks, rejected attacks on all civilian infrastructure in the region.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani "emphasised that targeting civilian infrastructure... is a rejected and condemned behaviour by any party under any circumstances", Qatar's foreign ministry said in a readout of a call with Iran's top diplomat Abbas Araghchi.
The Qatari prime minister also criticised Iran's "reckless disregard for the region's security" through its attacks on its neighbours, affirming that “this escalation toward countries that have distanced themselves from the war constitutes a reckless endangerment of the region’s security and a disregard for its stability.”
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