3:52 AM

Iran calls for human chains around power plants to protect them

An Iranian official urged youths to form human chains around power plants to protect them as President Trump's latest deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz drew closer.

The official called on "all young people, athletes, artists, students and university students and their professors" to form human chains around power plants ahead of the threatened strikes.

"Power plants that are our national assets and capital, regardless of any taste or political viewpoint, belong to the future of Iran and to the Iranian youth," Alireza Rahimi, identified by Iranian state television as the secretary of the Supreme Council of Youth and Adolescents, said as he issued the video call in a newscast.

Iran has formed human chains in the past around its nuclear sites at times of heightened tensions with the West.

Later, a Revolutionary Guard general urged parents to send their children to man checkpoints, which have been repeatedly targeted in…