Tehran, April 7 -- Amid escalating tensions and direct threats from the US to target civilian infrastructure, Iran's Deputy Sports Minister, Alireza Rahimi, has called on the nation's athletes and artists to form "human chains" around power plants, a symbolic and physical attempt to deter potential airstrikes following a series of specific ultimatums from US President Donald President Trump.

In a video message, he invited all youth, athletes, artists, students and faculty on Tuesday at 2 PM (local Iran time) to gather near power plants. "These are our wealth and belongings", he said in the message.

The call for human shields comes in response to President Trump's recent "8:00 PM deadline" (Washington time, Tuesday night) for Iran to reo...