Dozens of Iranians stood shoulder to shoulder outside the main power station in Tabriz on Tuesday, linking arms around the infrastructure that keeps their city’s lights on. In Bushehr, home to Iran’s nuclear power plant, they did the same. In Ahvaz, they gathered along the main bridge spanning the city’s river.

The human chains formed in direct response to US President Donald Trump’s threat to destroy Iran’s power plants and bridges if Tehran does not submit to his demands by 8pm Washington time (midnight GMT). State media and local journalists documented the gatherings, organized through SMS campaigns and online appeals. Officials claimed more than 14 million people registered to participate, though that figure could not be independently verified. Initial images showed dozens at each location — not millions, but enough to signal that ordinary Iranians were prepared to use their bodies as shields.

From Military Targets to Civilian Life

The war that began on February 28 with US and Israeli strikes on Iran’s military leadership has moved steadily into civilian territory. More than 2,000 people have been killed over five weeks, according to Al Jazeera’s tally, with schools, residential buildings and medical facilities among the sites struck. A single attack on a school in Minab, southern Iran, killed more than 170 people.

On Monday, bombs reached Sharif University of Technology, Iran’s premier science and engineering institution. Multiple buildings were destroyed, including what authorities described as an artificial intelligence research centre housing critical databases. The university had spent two years developing AI models in Persian, serving hundreds of companies.

“We believe the reason the enemy targeted these buildings and destroyed the entire infrastructure is that it did not want us to achieve AI technology,” university president Masoud Tajrishi told reporters at the bombing site on Tuesday. He noted that no country had shared AI expertise with Iran under US sanctions, so all research was conducted domestically.

More than 30 universities have been affected since the war began, according to Science Minister Hossein Simaei Saraf. The destruction extends beyond academia: Israel expressed regret for destroying a Tehran synagogue on Tuesday, calling it “collateral damage” from a strike on a “senior military target.” The synagogue served the capital’s small Jewish community.

“A Whole Civilization Will Die Tonight”

Trump’s rhetoric has escalated alongside the bombing. On Tuesday, he posted on Truth Social: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”

Iran is heir to millennia of Persian civilization — among the oldest continuous cultures on Earth. The president has set and ignored deadlines before during this conflict. This one carried distinct weight. He has vowed to destroy all Iranian power stations and bridges, telling reporters he was “not at all” concerned about accusations of war crimes.

Vice President JD Vance, speaking in Hungary, warned that Washington had tools it “so far haven’t decided to use” — phrasing that triggered enough concern about nuclear weapons that the White House issued a statement insisting their use was not under consideration.

Pope Leo called Trump’s threats “truly unacceptable,” adding that attacks on civilian infrastructure violate international law. Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard said the threats “may constitute a threat to commit genocide” under the Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Iran’s UN ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, called Trump’s statements “incitement to war crimes – and potentially genocide.”

The 11-2 Vote

Hours before the deadline, the UN Security Council voted on a resolution aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow waterway through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil transits, now largely blocked since the conflict began.

The text, submitted by Bahrain alongside Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, called on states to “coordinate efforts” defensively to ensure safe navigation and demanded that Iran “immediately cease all attacks on shipping.”

The result: 11 in favour, 2 against. Russia and China vetoed. Colombia and Pakistan abstained.

Russia’s ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said the resolution presented Iranian actions as the sole source of tension while US and Israeli attacks were “not mentioned at all.” China’s Fu Cong said the draft “failed to capture the root causes and the full picture of the conflict in a comprehensive and balanced manner.”

Iran’s Iravani said the text sought “to punish the victim for defending its sovereignty and vital national interests” while providing “political and legal cover for further unlawful acts by the aggressors.”

Bahrain’s foreign minister, Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, expressed regret on behalf of the sponsoring nations. “Failing to adopt this resolution sends the wrong signal to the world, to the peoples of the world, the signal that the threat to international waterways can pass without any decisive action by the international organization responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security,” he said.

Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, publicly requested that Trump delay his ultimatum by two weeks to “allow diplomacy to run its course.” A senior Iranian official told Reuters that Tehran was reviewing a ceasefire proposal “positively.” The White House said Trump had been made aware and would respond.

Even as diplomats spoke in New York, the conflict was spreading. Explosions were reported in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday evening. Sirens sounded in Bahrain, where residents were ordered to shelter in place. Interceptors engaged targets over the United Arab Emirates. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had attacked Saudi Arabia’s Jubail petrochemical complex in retaliation for strikes on an Iranian facility.

A Civilization at Stake

Trump has framed his threats in the language of civilization — warning that Iran’s will die tonight while claiming he has already achieved “regime change.” In Washington, Democratic senator Chuck Schumer called Trump an “extremely sick person.” Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib invoked the 25th Amendment, citing the Minab school bombing. Congressman Jim McGovern stressed that the military is required to disobey “illegal orders.” But dissent from Trump’s own Republican Party remained faint, and Congress has failed to pass a resolution curbing his war powers.

The defining image of Tuesday was not a government in freefall. It was people standing in front of power plants, on bridges, outside the ruins of universities — civilian infrastructure that sustains 90 million lives.

Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, wrote on social media that more than 14 million people had registered to sacrifice their lives. Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf posted a screenshot of his own registration. The Persian word for self-sacrifice — janfada — trended across Iranian social media.

A Shahid Beheshti University student, speaking anonymously to Al Jazeera, captured the absurdity: “If you can justify attacks on power plants, steel, petrochemicals, bridges, universities and science institutes, you can justify anything.”

The war has killed supreme leader Ali Khamenei, decimated Iran’s military command and destroyed infrastructure that will take decades to rebuild. Trump has boasted it would take 100 years if the bombing continues.

A civilization is at stake tonight. Just not the one the president of the United States threatened to destroy.

Sources