13,000 targets. Tehran is burning and a musician sits in front of a power plant

Tehran - On this night, Tehran was what Tehran has become on too many nights. Explosions. Low flying fighter jets. Residential buildings that no longer stand. People who no longer know where to go. Scenes for which there are no other words than the ones no one wants to hear.

Israel claimed the latest wave of attacks on the Iranian capital without providing details. US Central Command stated that American forces have struck more than 13,000 targets since the beginning of the war. 13,000. In less than six weeks. Including residential buildings, universities - in recent days between 20 and 30 academic institutions - infrastructure, energy facilities, everything that keeps a city alive and everything people need to get up in the morning and know that the day is coming.

Ali Ghamsari, an Iranian musician, has sat down in front of the Damavand power plant in Tehran on a carpet, wrapped himself in a blanket, his instrument beside him. He plans to stay. He said in a video: Today there are threats to attack our infrastructure. This is about Iran. It is about you. About me. About our families, children, hospitals. If there is no electricity, there is no water.

A musician sits in front of a power plant and explains to the world what war means.

Trump’s deadline expires at 8 PM local time in Washington. Every bridge in Iran should be destroyed by midnight, he said on Monday. Power plants would burn and never be used again. Four hours would be enough for that. When asked whether war crimes were an issue, he answered that it does not concern him at all.

Between 20-30 universities were destroyed in Iran

The UN Security Council will vote on Tuesday on a resolution to open the Strait of Hormuz. The original Bahraini draft would have allowed countries to use all necessary means - in the language of the United Nations, a wording that includes military action. The text has been revised six times. What is up for a vote on Tuesday merely recommends that countries coordinate their protection efforts. Russia and China had blocked every stronger draft. The vote is scheduled for 11 AM local time in New York (7:00 PM CET), hours before Trump’s deadline.

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon called Trump’s threats against Iranian infrastructure not helpful. Attacks on bridges, dams, and civilian infrastructure would be unacceptable, he said. Foreign Minister Winston Peters will call for de escalation at his meeting with Marco Rubio in Washington.

Iran had already rejected the ceasefire proposal. No mere ceasefire would be accepted, only an end to the war with guarantees. The attacks continued nonetheless, on both sides. Iran again fired rockets at Israel on Tuesday. Israel responded.

And the world watches.

That is the sentence that remains. Not the numbers, not the deadlines, not the sixth version of a UN text that no longer stops anyone. But the quiet, undeniable fact that in Tehran people stand in the streets in pajamas, crying because the next impact was too close, while elsewhere someone talks about Easter bunnies and colorful eggs and a president says it does not concern him.

13,000 targets. Six weeks. And a musician sits on a carpet in front of a power plant and asks that the water keeps flowing.

That is the state of the world on this Tuesday.