Iran has threatened to destroy oil facilities and other critical infrastructure across the Middle East "in an irreversible manner" if the US attacks its power plants.
"Immediately after the power plants and infrastructure in our country are targeted, the critical infrastructure, energy infrastructure, and oil facilities throughout the region will be considered legitimate targets and will be destroyed in an irreversible manner, and the price of oil will remain high for a long time," Iran's parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on Sunday in a post on social media platform X.
The warning follows US president Donald Trump's ultimatum on Saturday that Iran must fully reopen the strait of Hormuz by 23 March or face strikes on its power plants.
Traffic through the strait has been heavily restricted since the US Israeli war with Iran began on 28 February, causing a sharp rise in oil and gas prices. Iran has attacked tankers, energy infrastructure and US military sites across the region, while an Israeli strike on Iran's South Pars gas field last week caused substantial damage.
A spokesman for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a separate social media post on Sunday that another attack on Iranian energy infrastructure would draw a "much more severe" response.
