Middle East Crisis Iran War

Israel: Attacks on Iran at Strategic Crossroads

Israeli military chief Eyal Zamir says the Israeli-American attacks on Iran are approaching a strategic crossroads and vows to escalate them, AFP reports.

"We will continue to act decisively and intensify the damage to the regime," he said in a statement.

Earlier in the day, Israel announced that it had bombed eight bridges in Iran, which it claims have been used to transport military personnel and equipment, writes the Wall Street Journal.

Eyal Zamir's statement comes a few hours before the deadline set by Donald Trump at 02:00 Swedish time expires.

Trump has threatened to blow up all the bridges and power plants in the country if Iran does not accept an American

Analysis: Donald Trump has painted himself into a corner

Donald Trump has painted himself into a corner with his latest threat that "an entire civilization will die tonight". This is according to Sky News military analyst Michael Clarke.

He believes that there is a possibility that Trump will back down from the threat, but that history does not support it. He points out that the US often tends to escalate once it has mobilized militarily. One example is when the US gathered a large military force for the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, but also Tuesday's attack on, among other things, railways and the oil island of Kharg in Iran.

- They tend to press the start button rather than the stop button, he says.

The BBC's Daniel Bush is on the same track.

"He must now decide whether to follow through on his threats and escalate the war or back down and undermine his credibility," Bush writes.

He also wonders if Trump cares about the laws of war, given that he has threatened to target civilian infrastructure, not just military targets.

proposals for a ceasefire, and on Tuesday he wrote that "an entire civilization will die tonight."