Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Tuesday that called for states to coordinate efforts to protect commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

The draft resolution, prepared by Bahrain and supported by the United States, received 11 votes in favor, two against and two abstentions – Pakistan and Colombia.

The text was already diluted from the initial goal of obtaining clearance to “unblock” the strait by force.

The latest draft “strongly encourages states… to coordinate efforts, defensive in nature, commensurate to the circumstances, to contribute to ensuring the safety and security of navigation, including through the escort of merchant and commercial vessels.”

It also “demands” that Iran “immediately cease all attacks against merchant and commercial vessels and any attempt to impede transit passage or freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.”

The critical waterway has been nearly blocked since the United States and Israel launched their war of aggression on February 28, sending ripple effects throughout the global economy.

Iran says it has not blocked the strait but imposed restrictions due to the security conditions created in the wake of the war on the country.

Tehran says all vessels must coordinate with it before trying to pass the waterway, which lies within its territorial waters.

It says it will not allow ships affiliated with the aggressors and their supporters to pass through the strait.

The Iranian Parliament has recently been discussing legislation to create a new legal regime for the strait to charge fees for safe transit through the strait.

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump’s increasingly apocalyptic threats of destruction in Iran have raised concerns of just how far the US president might go militarily to bend the Islamic republic to his will.

Trump announced Tuesday that “a whole civilisation will die” if Iran does not heed his ultimatum to accept US war demands, while Vice President JD Vance warned that Washington had additional “tools in our toolkit” that could be deployed against Tehran.

New ‘tools’ 

The United States has already used a wide variety of military capabilities in the conflict to strike thousands of targets in Iran.

“The US has employed a significant number of its most advanced capabilities in the war – air assets, cruise missiles, advanced stealth bombers, one-way attack drones,” said Daniel Schneiderman, director of global policy programmes at Penn Washington, the University of Pennsylvania’s center in the nation’s capital.

There may be “exquisite unique hypersonic capabilities or other bespoke systems that could be used against specific targets,” he said.

But “unless we’re talking about nuclear weapons, I don’t think the administration has limited itself in terms of what it is employing.”

US officials have also refused to rule out the deployment of ground troops – a step that would mark a major escalation in the war.

Etienne Marcuz, associate researcher at French think-tank FRS, said that “among the things they can still do, there is the possibility of cyber” warfare.

Trump has said US forces employed a weapon he referred to as the “discombobulator” during the January raid to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro that helped disable the country’s military equipment.

Nuclear option ‘unlikely’ 

Trump’s threat to wipe out Iranian civilisation has sparked speculation that nuclear weapons could be employed in Iran. In addition to massive city-destroying strategic warheads, Washington also possesses smaller “tactical” weapons designed to be used on the battlefield.

The United States is the only country to have used nuclear weapons in combat – against Japan late in World War II – and Trump ordered a resumption of nuclear testing last year.

The White House pushed back Tuesday against suggestions that Washington could target Iran with nuclear weapons, saying that “literally nothing” Vance said implied it would do so.

Schneiderman said it is “highly unlikely that the US will choose to use nuclear weapons against Iran. It is the ultimate Rubicon to cross.”

He noted that consequences of a nuclear strike include “the loss of life and human suffering that would be unleashed, the global economic turmoil and environmental impacts of nuclear fallout circulating in the atmosphere, and the rendering of Iran’s oil and natural gas exports functionally unusable.”

Marcuz agreed, saying the “political cost of such a deployment would be enormous,” and that it could “pave the way for similar action by Russia in Ukraine.”

What will US do? 

Trump has already threatened that the United States could bomb Iran’s bridges, power plants and other civilian infrastructure into the “stone age.”

If Trump’s ultimatum expires Tuesday without a deal, “there’s a possibility the administration escalates their attacks on dual-use infrastructure like bridges and power and energy systems,” Schneiderman said.

“The risk of lasting damage to Iran’s infrastructure and the immiseration of the population above and beyond what they’re already experiencing is significant,” he said.

“The likelihood that these strikes achieve a strategic effect on the course of the war is minimal, and the likelihood they harm the civilian population is high.”

Iran’s Army launched large-scale drone operation early Tuesday on Israeli petrochemical infrastructure near Dimona, a US naval maintenance hub in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and American radar and housing facilities in Kuwait.

“In response to the aggressions of the American-Zionist enemy against the Iranian petrochemical industries and other infrastructure, the power generation unit and fuel storage source of the petrochemical industry in the south of the occupied territories near Dimona, the US Navy maintenance center in Jebel Ali port in the UAE, and radar systems and housing buildings of American forces at the Ahmed Al Jaber Air Base in Kuwait have been targeted by heavy drone attacks,” the Army said in a statement.

The Dimona industrial zone is of high sensitivity to Israeli economy and security. It hosts the regime’s largest chemical complex in the Negev desert.

The power generation unit and fuel storage facility are located there, and the chemicals produced are used for certain military purposes, the Army said.

The US Navy maintenance center at Jebel Ali port in the UAE is one of the largest docking ports for American naval vessels in the region. It provides critical support and repair services to the US fleet.

The Ahmed Al Jaber Air Base in Kuwait hosts American military personnel. It houses radar systems and hangars capable of accommodating various military aircraft. The US Air Force’s 332nd unit is stationed there.

Iran’s Army dedicated the Tuesday operation to “anonymous soldiers, creative engineers, diligent workers, and all those involved in the Iranian oil, petrochemical and energy industries.”

“Pioneers who, during the war, with their steadfastness, expertise and exemplary sacrifice, prevented the halt of the production cycle, light and hope in this land”.

The United States and Israel imposed their illegal, unprovoked war on Iran on February 28. They assassinated Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and targeted nuclear sites, schools and hospitals.

Nearly 100 waves of missile and drone strikes under Operation True Promise 4 have been pounding the Israeli-occupied territories and the United States’ assets in the region on a daily basis.