> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://hyperallergic.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Trump Threatens to Wipe Out Iranian Civilization - URL: https://hyperallergic.com/trump-threatens-to-wipe-out-iranian-civilization/ - Published: 2026-04-07T16:19:50.000Z - Updated: 2026-04-07T21:46:33.000Z - Description: The president's threats to destroy the Islamic regime have escalated to include the entire population of Iran and the millennia of history and culture preceding it. - Author: Rhea Nayyar - Tags: News, 2026 Iran War, Iran, Israel, Trump Administration President Trump's murderous rhetoric has reached new heights as his threats to destroy the Islamic regime have since expanded to include the entire Iranian population and the millennia of history and culture preceding it. “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” President Donald Trump threatened in a Truth Social post this morning, April 7, as the deadline for his demand that Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz by 8 pm tonight approaches. “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” Trump's post continued as the United States says it [struck multiple military targets](https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/07/middleeast/kharg-island-us-assault-risk-trump-intl?ref=hyperallergic.com) on Kharg Island — Iran's critical terminal for the worldwide export of crude oil — this morning. According to the [Iranian Red Crescent](https://x.com/Iranian%5FRCS/status/2041415844710711366?s=20&ref=hyperallergic.com), the US and Israel also struck 17 civilian targets across the region today. In another explicit post on Sunday, April 5, Trump threatened to strike the nation's bridges and power plants if Iran kept the Strait closed. “If this is not genocidal intent — an open threat of annihilation — then I don't know what is,” Iranian novelist Sahar Delijani, author of the critically acclaimed book *Children of the Jacaranda Tree* (2013), wrote in a [statement on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/p/DW1XHQBjkyO/?hl=en&ref=hyperallergic.com) today. “Israel tells Iranians to stay away from trains, bridges, universities, entire infrastructures,” Delijani continued. “Meanwhile, on the 40th day of the regime's internet blackout, many Iranians cannot even hear these so-called warnings; don't even know where to run.” In addition to the thousands of civilians killed in the last six weeks, the US and Israel's strikes on Iran have already impacted about 50 culturally significant historical buildings and archaeological sites, including the [Golestan Palace](https://hyperallergic.com/israel-us-strikes-damage-tehrans-historic-golestan-palace/) in Tehran and the [Chehel Sotoun Palace](https://hyperallergic.com/us-and-israel-strikes-damage-17th-century-palace-in-isfahan/) in Esfahan city. Per [*Al-Jazeera*](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/7/synagogue-in-tehran-destroyed-in-us-israeli-strikes-on-iran?ref=hyperallergic.com)*,* Iranian state news outlets reported this morning that the Rafi Niya synagogue in central Tehran was badly damaged in a separate attack on a nearby building. US and Israeli attacks have also hit schools and academic institutions. A harrowing strike on Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary on February 28 [killed at least 175 people](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/11/iran-war-missile-strike-elementary-school?ref=hyperallergic.com), mostly children. A research center at the Iran University of Science and Technology was [leveled in an airstrike at the end of March](https://apnews.com/video/iran-university-of-science-and-technology-building-reduced-to-rubble-by-israeli-airstrike-84633e0923124bb3b875b2a694178591?ref=hyperallergic.com), and most recently, the nation's top-ranked [Sharif University of Technology was bombed yesterday](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/06/world/middleeast/iranians-condemn-university-strike.html?ref=hyperallergic.com). Laboratories at the Pasteur Institute and a plasma research center at Shahid Beheshti University were [also impacted in airstrikes](https://www.science.org/content/article/war-escalates-iran-s-universities-face-increasing-fire?ref=hyperallergic.com) over the last week. The US and Israel have claimed that some of these spaces are linked to Iran's nuclear development program and military operations; however, international law prohibits [strikes on purported dual-use sites](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/06/world/middleeast/iranians-condemn-university-strike.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) if they are expected to harm civilians. Experts around the world have characterized the attacks on civilian infrastructure across the region as possible [war crimes](https://www.justsecurity.org/135423/professors-letter-international-law-iran-war/?ref=hyperallergic.com). Salehi Amiri Reza, the Iranian Minister of Culture and Tourism, described the destruction as a “deliberate and conscious attack” on Iranian identity in an April 1 interview with [*Al-Jazeera*](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/4/7/how-us-israel-are-waging-a-war-on-iranian-culture-education?ref=hyperallergic.com).