The clock is ticking on President Donald Trump's threat to wipe out much of Iran's civilian infrastructure in a few hours if the country doesn't strike a deal to end the war by Tuesday evening.
But Trump has backed himself into a corner with threats that the US military can't feasibly carry out in a one fell swoop, military experts and analysts told the BBC. And they warn that a new round of attacks, no matter how large, is unlikely to force the Iranian regime to quickly agree to a ceasefire.
Trump vowed on Monday to destroy "every bridge" and power station in Iran in just four hours if a deal isn't reached by EST 20:00 (02:00 GMT). He escalated even further on Tuesday morning, warning that "a whole civilization will die" if Iran doesn't agree to a deal by his deadline.
Taken together, the warnings amounted to an unprecedented threat from a US president. Critics said targeting civilian infrastructure would constitute a war crime, a concern Trump dismissed at a press conference on Monday.
Setting that issue aside, former US defence officials and other analysts said the US simply can't destroy every bridge in a country the size of Iran in just a few hours, as Trump threatened to do.
