Iran’s president says 14 million Iranians, including himself, have volunteered to sacrifice their lives in the war

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Iran's president says 14 million Iranians, including himself, have volunteered to sacrifice their lives in the war.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is "deeply troubled" by the statement suggesting that an entire people or civilization may bear "the consequences of political and military decisions," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

Guterres didn't name Trump but was clearly referring to the American leader's warning to Iran earlier Tuesday that a "whole civilization will die tonight" if the Strait of Hormuz isn't opened.

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

The secretary-general reiterates that leaders can still choose "dialogue over destruction" and the choice for talks must be made now, Dujarric said.

Guterres calls for stepped-up diplomacy to find a path to peace and appeals for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the spokesman said.

The Pope says Trump's threat to destroy Iranian civilization is 'truly unacceptable' as deadline approaches. "Today as we all know there was this threat against all the people of Iran. This is truly unacceptable," Pope Leo XIV said, adding that any attacks on civilian infrastructure violate international law.

In some of his strongest comments yet against the war, Leo urged Americans and other people of good will to contact their political leaders and congressional representatives to demand they reject war and work for peace.

The remarks to reporters Tuesday came as he left his country house in Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome, just hours before Trump's deadline for Iran to capitulate and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.