Davide Ghiglione
Reporting from Rome

Image source, Getty Images

Pope Leo has said that threats directed at Iran’s population are "unacceptable".

It comes hours hours after Trump said on social media that a "whole civilization will die tonight" unless Iran reaches a deal on reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

The Pope, who is American, has increasingly voiced criticism of the Iran war.

Speaking to reporters as he left the papal retreat at Castel Gandolfo, outside Rome, he referenced a threat earlier today against the Iranian people, calling it "truly unacceptable".

He also urged people around the globe to contact their political representatives and press for an end to the conflict.

Image source, Getty Images

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says only Donald Trump "knows where things stand and what he will do" as the deadline he set for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz looms.

Her statement came in response to a request for clarification from the BBC about comments made by US President Donald Trump and his Vice President JD Vance earlier.

As we've reported, Trump said earlier "a whole civilisation will die tonight" unless Iran reaches a deal on opening the Strait of Hormuz - adding he doesn't want that to happen "but it probably will".

Vance then said the Iranian regime has to know the US has "tools in our tool kit that we so far haven't decided to use. The President of the United States can decide to use them and he will decide to use them if the Iranians don't change their course of conduct".

Responding to a claim on social media that Vance had suggested the US could use nuclear weapons, the White House said "literally nothing" Vance said had implied that was the case.

Asked by the BBC to clarify its stance on using nuclear weapons, the White House sent the following statement from Leavitt: "The Iranian regime has until 8PM Eastern Time to meet the moment and make a deal with the United States. Only the President knows where things stand and what he will do."

As we reported earlier, the US has carried out further strikes on Iran's Kharg Island, home to a major oil terminal.

Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency is reporting that "no damage was done to critical infrastructure" in the latest strikes.

Image source, Getty Images

Iranian foreign affairs spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei says a "civilized" country's "logic"will prevail over "brute force".

In a statement on X shared this afternoon, he writes: "The power of a "CIVILIZED" nation's culture, logic, and faith in its righteous cause will undoubtedly prevail over the logic of brute force."

He adds: "A nation that has every faith in the righteousness of its path shall harness all its capacities and capabilities to safeguard its rights and legitimate interests."

He shares it with the hashtag "IranWillWin".

Image source, NurPhoto via Getty Images

UN Secretary-General António Guterres is "deeply troubled" by recent threats around civilian population, says his spokesperson.

Whilst not mentioning the US president directly, remarks from Guterres's spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric come after Donald Trump said "a whole civilisation will die tonight," as the deadline he issued to Iran looms.

Dujarric says the UN secretary-general was concerned about comments "suggesting that entire civilian populations or civilisations may be made to bear the consequences of political and military decisions".

There is "no military objective that justifies the wholesale destruction of a society's infrastructure" or "the deliberate infliction of suffering on civilian populations," he adds.

Guterres also believes that war can end "when leaders choose dialogue over destruction" - a choice that "still exists".

At least 45 vessels have crossed Strait of Hormuz since Fridaypublished at 18:33 BST 7 April

18:33 BST 7 April

By Kayleen Devlin

At least 45 commercial ships have crossed the Strait of Hormuz since Friday, the latest tracking data from maritime intelligence firm Kpler shows.

The figures shared with BBC Verify show that, since the outbreak of the war on 28 February, 324 vessels have used the vital shipping lane for oil and gas exports.

The highest daily number was on 28 February itself, when 31 vessels transited the strait. The pre-war average was about 100 commercial vessels a day.

Separate analysis from maritime intelligence company Windward indicates more ships are travelling on the southern side of the strait, closer to Oman’s coastline.

Windward notes “multiple” vessels used this route between 2 and 5 April, including three Omani-operated ships.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has issued an "urgent warning" to vessels in the maritime space between Tyre and Ras Naqoura in Lebanon.

In a statement on X IDF spokesperson Avichay Adraee claims there is Hezbollah activity that is putting vessels in danger, so they will take action.

Sharing an image of a mapped area, he tells anchored or sailing ships there to head north.

Jonathan Beale
Defence correspondent

The Ministry of Defence has confirmed a Royal Navy destroyer will be going into a port in the region for “a routine logistics stop and a short maintenance period”.

HMS Dragon recently arrived in the Eastern Mediterranean to potentially intercept Iranian missiles and drones

The MOD said the logistics stop was planned. However, it said a minor technical issue with the ship’s onboard water system also needed to be looked at.

The MOD says HMS Dragon will remain at high readiness during the period and will be able to sail at short notice.

• The ship departed for the Middle East on 10 March, amid criticism that the UK government was too slow to deploy it to the region. HMS Dragon is its first and only warship eastern Mediterranean

Image source, EPA

Trump's threat 'could plausibly be interpreted as a threat of genocide' - ex-State Department adviserpublished at 17:33 BST 7 April

17:33 BST 7 April

Tom Bateman
US State Department correspondent

Image source, EPA

Trump’s Truth Social post is yet another extraordinary scaling up of rhetoric to a level previously unthinkable from a president of the United States, in at least the post-World War Two era.

Brian Finucane, a former legal adviser at the State Department, says of Trump’s post: “This threat against a ‘whole civilization’ could plausibly be interpreted as a threat of genocide.

"Trump may hope this puts pressure on Tehran to reach a deal. But the risk of further US escalation against Iran is very real.”

The US is a signatory to the 1948 Convention on Genocide, which binds the contracting parties “to prevent and to punish” the crime of genocide, defined as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.

I asked the US State Department if the post was a threat of genocide, to which a spokesperson said: "That is not what the president said and you should go read his statement again. President Trump was clear: 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end."

Trump’s post says if Iran doesn't do a deal, "a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again”, before going on to say he hopes it won’t happen, but it “probably will”.

His rhetoric could be seen as a negotiating tactic, with some arguing previously it shouldn’t necessarily be taken literally.

The administration has repeatedly said his objective is to prevent Iran’s leadership developing a nuclear weapon, an issue over which Trump has abandoned diplomacy in favour of military force several times.

But even if it's a bluff, the rhetoric will raise even more concerns about the potential erosion of international norms on warfare, as we’ve written about here.

Nada Tawfik
Reporting from New York

Image source, Reuters

Russia and China have vetoed a Gulf draft resolution at the UN Security Council that strongly encouraged defensive, co-ordinated efforts to secure the Strait of Hormuz.

Eleven countries voted in favour and two council members abstained (Pakistan and Colombia).

After weeks of negotiations, the draft was watered down from initially being under Chapter VII (authorising military force) to removing Chapter VII but “authorizing states to use all defensive means necessary” to finally strongly encouraging defensive efforts.

Bahrain's Foreign Minister Dr Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani chaired the meeting.

Speaking before the vote, he told council members that the draft didn’t create a new reality, but was a serious response to a pattern of recurring hostile Iranian behaviour that must cease.

He said failure by the Security Council to respond to the weaponising of the vital waterway for leverage would have grave consequences for the world and could be replicated in other straits and waterways, transforming the world in to a jungle.

The BBC has reported that China is among the countries that has been able to keep using the Strait while Russia could be set to benefit as sanctions on oil are relaxed in response to the closure

Is Trump’s latest threat serious?published at 16:42 BST 7 April

16:42 BST 7 April

Frank Gardner
Security correspondent

In a way, President Donald Trump’s "end-of-civilisation" threat to Iran, posted on his Truth Social account, is even more shocking than his earlier one that was rich in un-presidential-like expletives.

To suggest, even as a bluff, that "a whole civilization will die tonight" is to invite comparisons with those who have sought to destroy remnants of the great civilisations of the wider Middle East.

The Taliban blew up the giant stone 6th-Century Buddhas of Bamiyan, and ISIS demolished parts of the 2nd-Century city of Palmyra.

Is Donald Trump planning to go down in history as the man who bombed Iran’s priceless vestiges of its ancient civilisations like the ruins of Persepolis? Or the Unesco World Heritage site of the Friday Mosque at Isfahan?

Even Vladimir Putin, in his savage war on Ukraine, has spared the golden domes of Kyiv’s cathedrals.

Even if the US president is just using the term "civilization" loosely, to mean civil infrastructure like bridges and power plants, this still risks being classed as a war crime.

But this, lawyers say, is a grey area, as anything which can be proven to have a military role does not fit the definition of a war crime.

A UN Security Council meeting is under way now to discuss a resolution on reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

The resolution, put forward by the Security Council president, Bahrain, "strongly encourages" member states to "coordinate efforts, defensive in nature, commensurate to the circumstances, to contribute to" ensuring navigational safety.

You can watch live above.

Further explosions have been reported in Iran on Tuesday, as Trump's deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz looms.

Here are some of the latest pictures from the Iranian capital:

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

Image source, EPA/Shutterstock

Image source, Getty Images

Two previously detained French nationals Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris have been allowed to leave Iran.

In a post on X, French President Emmanuel Macron thanks authorities for their support in mediation.

Kohler and Paris were handed lengthy prison sentences by a court in Iran last year after being convicted of espionage. They were released from detention in November.

They were arrested in May 2022 during a tourist trip.

France previously accused Iran of holding Kohler and Paris arbitrarily and keeping them in conditions akin to torture. Iran denied the claims.

Image source, RONEN ZVULUN/POOL/EPA/Shutterstock

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Israel have struck railways and bridges used by Iran.

In a message shared on X, he says that "yesterday we destroyed transport aircraft and dozens of helicopters.

"Today we attacked the train tracks and bridges used by the Revolutionary Guards."

Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it has struck "eight bridge segments" that it claims were used by Iranian armed forces.

The IDF says these strikes took place across cities, including Tehran, Karaj, Tabriz, Kashan, and Qom.

This comes after earlier reports from Iranian state media that two people were killed following an attack on a bridge in Kashan, hours after Israel warned Iran's residents not to take trains "for the sake of your security".

Trump's latest post doesn't indicate he's optimistic about reaching a dealpublished at 15:34 BST 7 April

15:34 BST 7 April

Sarah Smith
North America editor

Donald Trump is never shy about using apocalyptic language in his social media posts – but even by his standards the threat that "a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again" is brutal.

He has set a deadline of 20:00 US Eastern Time for Iran to agree a deal – including re-opening the Strait of Hormuz – or to face the destruction of much of its civilian infrastructure, including all its bridges and power plans.

But the president has set similar deadlines in the past, only to back down and extend his time frame.

His latest social media post suggests that he intends to stick to his deadline this time. Referencing the possibility of a devastating attack on Iran, he writes: "I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will."

Negotiations are taking place, but do not appear to be going well.

Trump also suggested in his Truth Social post that the new leadership in Iran may agree to a deal – saying "maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS?"

But this latest post does not indicate that he is optimistic about reaching an agreement before his deadline tonight.

Image source, EPA

Freya Scott-Turner
Live reporter

Image source, EPA

Donald Trump has issued a fresh threat to Iran on Tuesday, warning that a "whole civilization will die tonight" ahead of this evening's looming deadline to reach a deal on the Strait of Hormuz.

This is how things have moved on through Tuesday so far:

• "A whole civilization will die tonight" unless "smarter and less radicalized minds prevail", Donald Trump has warned Iran. "I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will," he says
• Trump's threats come as we near a deadline he's imposed on the Iranian regime to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by 20:00 EDT Tuesday (00:00 GMT / 01:00 BST on Wednesday)
• Meanwhile, his Vice President JD Vance - speaking at a press conference in Budapest - says that it's up to Iran to "come to the table", or the "economic situation in Iran will continue to be very, very bad"
• Elsewhere, the US has carried out overnight strikes on military targets on Kharg Island, according to the BBC's US partner, CBS News. The stretch of land, which lies off the coast of Iran, is home to a major oil terminal - though an unnamed official has told CBS that oil infrastructure was not targeted
• And in mainland Iran, two people have reportedly been killed after a strike on a railway bridge, while train services have been cancelled - according to reports in Iranian media. The Israeli military earlier told people in Iran not to travel on trains on Tuesday because it "endangers your life"
• Further explosions were reported in Tehran, by various outlets on the ground in the Iranian capital

Latest Trump rhetoric underscores the president's predicamentpublished at 15:02 BST 7 April

15:02 BST 7 April

Daniel Bush
Washington correspondent

President Donald Trump has escalated his threats against Iran even further ahead of his Tuesday night deadline for Tehran to strike a ceasefire deal.

Trump warned in a social media post that "a whole civilization will die tonight" if Iran doesn't reach an agreement by 20:00 EDT Tuesday (00:00 GMT / 01:00 BST on Wednesday).

The threat came one day after Trump said the US would destroy "every bridge" and power station in Iran if a deal isn't reached.

The latest rhetoric raised new questions about whether Trump's threat - if carried out - would target civilians and non-military infrastructure and constitute a war crime. Trump on Monday said he wasn't concerned that it would.

It also underscored Trump's challenging predicament: he must now decide whether to follow through on his threats and escalate the war or back down and undermine his credibility.

Image source, EPA

About an hour ago, Donald Trump warned that "a whole civilisation will die tonight" unless Iran reaches a deal on reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

As we reported earlier, this isn't the first deadline Trump has set during this conflict - here's a recap:

• Deadline 1: On 21 March, Trump said he would "hit and obliterate" power plants, "starting with the biggest ones first", if Iran didn't reopen the waterway within 48 hours
• Deadline 2: Two days later, he said there had been "very good and productive conversations" between the countries and postponed strikes against energy infrastructure for five days
• Deadline 3: On 27 March, Trump said he would postpone attacking energy plants for 10 days, "as per [an] Iranian government request", bringing the deadline to 6 April
• 48-hour warning: On Friday, with the 6 April deadline looming, he warned that Iran had "48 hours" before he unleashed "all hell"
• Expletive-laden threat: In a Sunday post peppered with expletives, Trump reiterated this threat, saying that "Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day" - in a later post he said "Tuesday, 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time!"
• Latest threat: On Tuesday, Trump shared a message on Truth Social that said "a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will".

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps says it has struck a petrochemical complex in the Jubail area of Saudi Arabia, in a statement shared by Iranian state news agency IRNA.

In the statement, it says the drone and missile attack was a response to the targeting of petrochemical plants in Iran on Monday.

This follows an earlier report about an attack on the the complex in Jubail from the AFP news agency, which said it had spoken directly to a source on the ground.

The attack caused a fire at the complex and loud explosions were heard, they quoted the source as saying.

Earlier in the day, several Iranian media outlets - including Fars, Nour and Tasnim - also reported on the fire, and shared a video they said showed the complex on fire.

The BBC has not been able to independently verify the claims, and authorities in Saudi Arabia have not commented on the reports.