U.S. President Donald Trump has once again extended the deadline for strikes on Iran's essential infrastructure, including power plants, by one more day. Iran, meanwhile, has pushed back with warnings that "the entire Middle East will burn," further escalating tensions.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Monday, Trump said, "If Iran takes no action by Tuesday evening, power plants and bridges will all come crashing down." Shortly before the interview, Trump posted a brief message on Truth Social reading, "Tuesday 8 p.m. Eastern Time!" — effectively setting 8 p.m. on May 7 (9 a.m. KST on May 8) as the new deadline.
This marks the third time Trump has extended his attack deadline. He first warned Iran on April 21 to "open the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours or face strikes on power plant facilities." Then, just before the New York Stock Exchange opened on Monday, April 23, he claimed to have had "productive talks with Iran" and granted a five-day reprieve. On April 26, as the New York stock market plunged, he extended the deadline by ten days to 8 p.m. on April 6 (May 6), and has now added one more day.
Trump unleashed a barrage of hardline rhetoric across a series of media interviews. In an interview with Axios, he stressed, "If they don't make a deal, we're going to blow everything up over there." When asked by congressional media outlet The Hill whether he ruled out deploying ground troops to Iran, he replied, "No," leaving the possibility open. He also pressured Iran to negotiate, telling The Hill, "Any normal person would make a deal."
Iran did not back down either. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, speaker of Iran's parliament, wrote on X (formerly Twitter), "Because you (President Trump) stubbornly follow Netanyahu's orders, our entire region will burn." He added, "Do not make a mistake. There is nothing to gain through war crimes." Ghalibaf also said, "The only true solution is to respect the rights of the Iranian people and end this dangerous game." Iran's presidential office also announced that "the strait will be reopened only when war damages are fully compensated through a portion of strait transit toll revenues."
Regarding these developments, the New York Times reported that "Iran's downing of a U.S. fighter jet and the U.S. rescue of the pilot could serve as a catalyst for further escalating tensions between the two countries." Both sides may gain confidence from the incident and adopt a more aggressive posture, the report noted. Ali Vaez, director of the Iran Project at the International Crisis Group (ICG), a U.S. think tank, said it is difficult to expect diplomacy to end the crisis when both countries perceive the situation as being in their favor. "From this point on, war will become far more dangerous than before," he stressed. "This is a classic escalation trap."
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