Name: Trump gives Iran 48-hour ultimatum to reopen Strait of Hormuz
Uploaded: 2026-03-22T16:28:24.000Z
Duration: 9 min 31 s
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President Donald Trump is threatening an enormous attack on Iran's energy infrastructure if Tehran doesn't allow free navigation through the strategic strait of Hormuz.

CNN's Eleni Jokos joining us live from Dubai.

Eleni, Donald Trump then threatening Iran with an enormous punch on Iran's energy infrastructure should Tehran not, quote, open the strait within 48 hours.

Its not at all clear whether Iran will heed that warning.

The impact of that choke point and the effect of a shutdown in energy sites around the region continues to have a huge impact on the world economy.

Asian markets will open first, of course, for Monday trade.

We are feeling it around the world already.

I think, Becky, you can see inflation inputs basically across the board, whether it's energy, whether it's, you know, things like downstream products on jet fuel, other products across the world.

I think that speaking to a lot of corporates are really worried about what it's going to do to earnings down the line.

And this is why we started to see a lot of concern coming through and even in the markets and the equities.

But just focusing on President Trump's line on if the Strait of Hormuz is not open within 48 hours, that he's going to hit and obliterate power plants and he's going to start with the biggest power plants in Iran so clearly giving them an ultimatum.

Iran, for its part, coming up with a statement today saying that all vessels can pass through the Strait of Hormuz as long as they're not linked to what they say is the enemy.

So we're talking about US And Israeli linked vessels now.

How they apply that rule remains to be seen.

We've heard just another vessel was impacted by an unknown projectile just off the coast here in the UAE in Sharjah.

So we're seeing around 22 vessels that have already been impacted since the start of this war.

And that, of course, creates a lot of nervousness from shippers.

Iran also saying that if any of its power plants are in fact targeted, that they will retaliate.

And they're focusing on desalination plants as a US Assets as well as other critical energy infrastructure.

So rhetoric definitely has been escalated.

The big question is is President Trump going to be happy with the line of, well, you know, anyone can pass through the strait as long as it's not the US And Israel linked vessels.

And then importantly that whoever wants to pass through the strait will, will have to coordinate with Iran for security guarantees.

In the meantime, we have heard that 22 countries have shown interest to assist in securing the straits.

In the meantime, interestingly, over the weekend, we also heard President Trump saying that he wants to start winding down the war.

So in terms of the inconsistencies we've been hearing specifically from the United States, Becky, this now, 23 days into this war, the Gulf nations have borne the brunt of what we've been seeing in these strikes against the region, specifically on critical energy infrastructure.

This threat that was issued by President Trump on Saturday night run as you saw, a very direct threat to the Iranians saying if they do not re establish free navigation or allow for free navigation in the Strait of Hormuz and completely reopen it, then the US Will potentially strike some of their energy.

Do you see this as perhaps the President really feeling that mounting political pressure that you and I have discussed for the last several weeks?

Well, you know, it's also, I mean, look, it is the president, either by design or impulse, just sort of careening in his messaging on the war.

You know, I mean, literally just days ago, he said.

He said incorrectly, as it turned out, but

he did say that the US Was not informed of the Israeli attack on Iranian energy infrastructure.

And then, of course, Iran responded by attacking other energy infrastructure in the region.

The ruling regime can absorb a lot of pain on behalf of its public in a way that is just harder for our democracy to do.

So it's kind of hard to imagine that this threat is going to lead to Iran to say, okay, yes, we cave and we are going to open the strait.

More likely, if the US Follows through on this, Iran will try to take out more energy infrastructure in the region.

And that could almost immediately be reflected in even higher gas prices.

I mean, the President has always behaved, I think, in almost every situation, as though he is the one with escalation dominance, what the military planners call escalation dominance.

He decides how intense the conflict flares and when it ends.

And that just does not seem to be the case right now.

If he does get free navigation in the Strait of Hormuz again, what happens then to this issue of NATO and how he's been obviously criticizing NATO allies while at the same time calling on their support?

I mean, would he still need their support?

Well, again, if you think that Iran is going to completely back down and open the strait, or that we can do it through unilateral military force in some way, Then he doesn't need NATO.

But I think the posture of this administration toward traditional allies has been kind of indifference at best and diffidence and actually derision at worst.

And, I mean, the response of the NATO allies to this is what you might expect from those 15, 16 months of this kind of behavior.

I mean, the President has really not shown a lot of interest either in making the case to this, too, our traditional allies, why this was necessary to do other than Israel, and

I mean, there's kind of been this sense that, you know, we have the force to do this, and

therefore everybody else, including the Iranians, would fall in line.

And, you know, in the end, we may get an awful lot of what we want out of this war, but

we are certainly not getting it at as low a cost as he expects.

And the biggest thing that we thought we might precipitate, which is the collapse of the regime, seems nowhere in sight.

And again, the President's response when pressured, almost always his first response, is to escalate, to threaten more like, right, NATO isn't doing what he wants.

We may reconsider our relations with NATO, and that is what the military planners call escalation, dominance.

But it does not seem to be completely in our hands at this moment.

He's a professor of government at Georgetown University in Qatar.

Thank you so much for being with me, sir.

We are now into the fourth week of this war.

When you look at where things stand at a moment, do you see each the side moving closer to a strategic objective, or are we simply just watching a conflict that's widening without any clear endgame?

I'm afraid we are witnessing a conflict that continues to escalate every day.

We're surprised by yet another red line being traversed.

And now we are looking at this threat from President Trump saying that Iranian energy facilities and power plants will be hit, and

Iran has in turn threatened to hit energy facilities here in the Persian Gulf region.

And if either side carries out that threat, then we're really looking into the abyss, I'm afraid.

Joining me live to discuss all of this and the ongoing situation in the Middle east is retired U.S.

marine intelligence officer Lt. Col. Hal Koempfer.

He's the CEO and founder of the Global Risk Intelligence and Planning firm, as well as the host of this threat podcast.

Lieutenant Colonel, it's great to have you join us again.

Let's assess or let's analyze what we just heard a little while ago, especially what's coming from the White House.

Now, with President Trump issuing a very direct threat on Iran's energy infrastructure, what are the risks for the United States and perhaps its partners in the Gulf in issuing this type of ultimatum for Iran?

Could it perhaps, could the regime perhaps feel cornered and increase some of its targeting?

Well, Paul, I think they're already starting to feel cornered.

One of the things is this is kind of a response to what they've been doing.

They've been targeting critical infrastructure in the Gulf states across the board.

They've been hitting obviously energy infrastructure, tremendous damage in Qatar with the liquefied natural gas capabilities there, which is really vital for the world.

So this is basically kind of a response to that saying, will hit your power.

And it is a kind of a, it's sort of a dangerous thing, but

The danger is could it alienate the Iranian people away from the US and what's trying to be done there?

Could it make them somehow adhere to the regime in a sort of nationalist way?

The other side is they're thinking, well, they might turn off the lights, literally.

And if they turn off the lights, that does make it look like the regime can't do much.

So it sort of disempowers the regime's hold on the people.

But I think there's a big psychological element.

It's not something immediate, it's something for them to ponder for the next two days.