Washington D.C. – Jamal Abdi, President of the National Iranian American Council, issued the following statement in response to threats by Donald J. Trump to strike Iran’s power plants within 24 hours if demands around the Strait of Hormuz are not met:
“Let’s be absolutely clear: threatening to bomb Iran’s power plants is a threat to millions of civilians—people who rely on electricity for hospitals, water systems, and basic survival. This is not a ‘targeted’ strike. This is collective punishment.
“Targeting power plants, nuclear plants, and desalination plants are war crimes. The President’s endorsement of such acts only threatens to escalate the conflict further and provoke attacks on civilian infrastructure across the region.
“This is exactly why we have always opposed war on Iran and the lie that it would ‘target’ the government rather than innocent civilians. To those who cheered escalation, sanctions, and ‘regime change,’ believing it would somehow be clean or controlled—this is the reality. You do not get to choose who war harms. It is ordinary people who lose their homes, their safety, and their lives.
“We reiterate our call for urgent diplomacy to end this war. We urge the President to step back from further escalation, halt threats against civilian infrastructure, and pursue a diplomatic off-ramp to end this war. The United States must not deepen a conflict that is already exacting a devastating toll on civilians.
“Every hour this continues, more lives are at risk. The only responsible path forward is to end this war—before even more irreversible harm is done.”
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