Israel says it has hit more than 3500 targets across Lebanon in the latest round of fighting with Iran-backed Hezbollah. Above, a building lies in ruins in Dahiyeh, Beirut. Photo / Getty Images
Iran’s central military command has rejected United States President Donald Trump’s threat to destroy the country’s vital infrastructure if it does not accept a peace deal within 48 hours.
General Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi, in a statement from the Khatam al-Anbiya central headquarters, said Trump’s threat was “a helpless, nervous, unbalanced and stupid action”.
And, echoing the religious language of Trump’s social media post, he warned that “the simple meaning of this message is that the gates of hell will open for you”.
Trump said on Saturday (local time) that Tehran had 48 hours left to cut a deal or face “all Hell”.
Iran has warned Trump it will turn the entire Middle East into a “swamp” if the US escalates its war.
Trump threatened to intensify US attacks on the Iranian regime if the Strait of Hormuz was not reopened by Monday.
Tehran hit back, telling the US and Israel that its forces would turn the region into a “hell” for their troops if the US President made good on his threats.
“Do not forget that if aggression expands, the entire region will turn into a hell for you,” a regime spokesman told Iranian media, according to the Telegraph.
“The illusion of defeating the Islamic Republic of Iran has turned into a swamp in which you will sink.”
The US President’s threat over the blockaded strait appears to contradict his speech earlier in the week in which he suggested that Washington could walk away from the conflict without a deal to reopen it, and after he urged Nato allies to go and get their own oil.
As the global energy crisis deepened, the US and Israel continued to pound Iranian infrastructure.
US and Iranian forces scrambled to find a downed American airman and after a strike near an Iranian nuclear power plant prompted evacuations.
Tehran has announced fresh attacks in the region, with the Revolutionary Guards saying it hit a commercial ship in Bahrain allegedly linked to Israel.
The war erupted more than a month ago with US-Israeli strikes on Iran, triggering a retaliation that has spread the conflict throughout the Middle East and convulsed the global economy - particularly because of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital conduit for oil and gas.
“Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, referring to an ultimatum issued on March 26.
“Time is running out - 48 hours before all Hell will reign [sic] down on them.”
Tehran said it had shot down an F-15 warplane and US media reported US special forces had rescued one of its two crew members, with the other still missing.
Iran’s military also said it downed a US A-10 ground attack aircraft in the Gulf, with US media saying the pilot of that plane was rescued.
The local Mehr news agency on Saturday quoted the deputy governor of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, Fattah Mohammadi, as saying the search for the missing pilot involved “presence of popular forces and tribesmen alongside military forces and is still ongoing”.
He added that “last night, people fired at enemy helicopters with rifles and did not allow them to land”.
Images posted on social media and verified by AFPTV showed Iranian police firing at a US helicopter in southwestern Iran as US forces searched for the airman.
Mohammad Ghalibaf, the Speaker of Iran’s parliament, mocked the Trump Administration, saying the “war they started has now been downgraded from ‘regime change’ to ‘Hey! Can anyone find our pilots?’What incredible progress. Absolute geniuses.”
Retired US Brigadier General Houston Cantwell, who has 400 hours of combat flight experience, said a pilot’s training would likely kick in before he or she parachuted to the ground.
“My priority would be, first of all, concealment, because I don’t want to be captured,” he told AFP.
A strike near Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant on Saturday killed a guard and led Russia, which partly constructed the facility and helps operate it, to announce it was evacuating 198 workers.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned that continued attacks on the plant on the southern coast could eventually lead to radioactive fallout that would “end life in GCC [Gulf Co-operation Council] capitals, not Tehran”.
Bushehr is considerably closer to Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar than it is to the Iranian capital.
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency wrote on X that no increase in radiation levels had been reported at the site, but nonetheless voiced “deep concern” at what he said was the fourth such strike in recent weeks.
“NPP [nuclear power plant] sites or nearby areas must never be attacked,” he said.
There were also more strikes on Tehran, where an AFP journalist saw a thick haze of grey smoke covering the skyline.
“This war wasn’t for freedom ... we just ended up trapped with something even more savage,” 31-year-old Faezeh told AFP via messenger app from Tehran.
“They bomb randomly, there’s no sign of any specific target these recent days.”
Maryam, a 35-year-old from Khansar in Isfahan province said Iranians are divided between those hoping for an end to their government and those more fearful of economic disaster.
“I’m honestly really scared about our future,” she told AFP. “Things are a disaster right now. Mass layoffs, widespread shutdowns ... everything feels overwhelming.”
Strikes by all sides have increasingly targeted economic and industrial sites, raising fears of wider disruption to global energy supplies.
US-Israeli strikes on Saturday hit a petrochemicals hub, a cement plant and a trade terminal on the Iran-Iraq border, where one person was reported killed.
Iran has retaliated with missile and drone attacks on Israel and US allies in the Gulf.
Shrapnel from intercepted drones injured four people in Bahrain on Saturday, and two buildings in Dubai were hit by debris, including one housing the US cloud computing firm Oracle, authorities said.
On its Sepah News website, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also said it had targeted a commercial vessel, the MSC Ishyka, “owned by the Israeli regime and flying the flag of a third country” at the Khalifa Bin Salman port in Bahrain.
On another front, the Israeli military said on Friday (local time) it had struck more than 3500 targets across Lebanon in the month since the latest round of fighting with Iran-backed Hezbollah began.
Lebanese state media reported that Israel destroyed a bridge in the Bekaa region, and local media said a second bridge was also hit, after Israel said it would strike them.
An AFP journalist heard two loud explosions in Beirut early Saturday and saw smoke billowing from one of them.
A hospital in the coastal Lebanese city of Tyre was damaged by Israeli strikes on nearby buildings that wounded 11 people, the Health Ministry said.
The Israeli military later issued an urgent evacuation warning to residents of the city before more planned strikes.
Tens of thousands of people have left Tyre, but around 20,000 remain, including 15,000 displaced from surrounding villages.
- Agence France-Presse/The Telegraph