United States President Donald Trump on Saturday issued a stark 48 hour ultimatum to Iran, saying Tehran must strike a deal and reopen the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz or face severe consequences, warning that “all hell will reign down on them.”
On his Truth Social account, Trump recalled an earlier ultimatum, saying, “Remember when I gave Iran ten days to make a deal or open up the Hormuz Strait,” referring to the March 26 directive.
He added, “Time is running out – 48 hours before all hell will reign down on them,” and concluded with, “Glory be to God!”
In response, Iran mocked Trump’s 48 hour ultimatum, with officials deriding what they called his “ultimatum rants,” saying, “Our honest reply to old man’s ultimatum rants now.”
Meanwhile, Iran’s military command said that it had deployed a new air defence system to strike the US jets it had downed on Friday, and promised Tehran would “definitely achieve full control” over its airspace after more than a month of US and Israeli aerial dominance during the war.
Iran attacked an Israel-affiliated vessel with a drone in the Strait of Hormuz, setting the ship on fire, Iran’s state media said on Saturday, citing the commander of the Revolutionary Guards navy.
Earlier, a projectile struck near Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant’s perimeter fence in southwest Iran on Saturday, killing one person, semi-official news agency Tasnim reported.
It initially reported that there was no damage done to main parts of the plant, however, the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran said that the person who was killed was part of the plant’s security staff, and that damage was done to one of the facility’s side buildings.
Tasnim stated that there is currently no radiological danger posed by the attack, according to Al Jazeera.
Iran’s forces were hunting on Saturday for a missing US pilot from one of two warplanes downed over Iran and the Gulf, officials from both sides said, while two airmen were rescued.
The incidents show the risks still facing US and Israeli aircraft over Iran as the war entered its sixth week, despite assertions by President Donald Trump and his Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth that US forces had total control of the skies.
The prospect of a US service person alive and on the run in Iran raises the stakes for Washington in a conflict with low public support among Americans and no sign of an imminent end.
Reuters reported that several explosions were heard at the Mahshahr special petrochemical zone in southwestern Iran’s Khuzestan province, as per the Fars news agency.
Iran’s ISNA said there is a ‘high chance’ of casualties as a result of the US-Israeli attack on the zone.
Al Jazeera reported that Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said an Israeli air strike on the fishermen’s port in Tyre, southern Lebanon, has killed one person.
According to the NNA report, Israeli forces continue to blow up houses in several southern front-line villages and towns, such as Ayta al-Shaab and Ramyah.
The NNA also stated earlier that an Israeli drone strike killed at least two people when a motorbike was targeted in the northern outskirts of Tyre.
Al Jazeera reported that Israeli air attacks have hit the towns of Yohmar and Sahmar in the eastern Bekaa Valley.
According to Al Jazeera, in a statement carried by the IRNA news agency, Brigadier General Alireza Elhami said the Iranian air forces have already destroyed several advanced fighter jets, dozens of cruise missiles and more than 160 drones, including the Hermes and Lucas unmanned aircraft.
He added that the downing of these aircraft was “the result of tactics and the use of new equipment and innovations in defence systems”, which he said has “confused the enemy”.
Al Jazeera reported that the Israeli army has said that it has carried out another wave of strikes on Iran’s capital, Tehran. This comes after the military said earlier today that the air force struck “regime aerial defence sites, including an IRGC aerial defence site where missiles intended to target aircraft were stored” inside Tehran.
It claimed an attack on a “military site responsible for safeguarding the regime’s weapons research and development facilities” as well as a site where ballistic missiles were stored.