Trump says Iran could be ‘taken out’ on Tuesday, Hegseth says major strikes to come

By Nandita Bose and Steve Holland

WASHINGTON, April 6 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he would order sweeping attacks on civilian power plants and bridges in Iran on Tuesday night unless Tehran strikes a deal with Iran aimed at ending a five-week war.

Trump’s oath at a White House news conference came ahead of a deadline of 8pm EDT on Tuesday (0000 GMT on Wednesday) that Iran had set for complying with US conditions.

Trump demands that Iran give up nuclear weapons and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil transit route. He said: “The whole country could be taken out in one night and that night could be tomorrow night.”

“I hope I don’t have to do this,” Trump said.

He said the US had a plan in which by midnight EDT (04:00 GMT) on Wednesday “all bridges in Iran would be destroyed” and “all power plants in Iran would be disabled, burned, exploded and never used again.”

“So, by 12 o’clock the demolition will be completely completed, and if we want it to happen, it will happen within a four-hour period. We don’t want that to happen,” he said.

Critics said Trump would commit war crimes if the US attacked civilian power plants; It was a point Trump rejected on Monday. “I’m not worried about that. ⁠ Do you know what a war crime is? Possession of a nuclear weapon,” Trump said at an Easter egg event for children on the South Lawn of the White House earlier Monday.

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said at a press conference that the heaviest strikes since the beginning of the conflict in Iran would occur on Monday and warned that even more would occur on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters early in the Easter event, Trump said Iran’s offer was insufficient.

“They made an offer, and it’s an important offer. It’s an important step. It’s not good enough,” Trump said.

He said the war could end quickly if Iran did “what it had to do.”

“They need to do some things. They know that, I think they are negotiating in good faith,” he said.

Without providing any evidence, Trump said the United States had been subjected to “numerous intrusions” by Iranian civilians and urged him not to give up trying to remove the Iranian government from power.

“They are willing to endure this to have freedom,” Trump said.

RESCUE OPERATION

Trump, joined by Hegseth and other top national security advisers, cited the rescue of a downed American airman as a symbol of U.S. strength and determination. He detailed the weekend operation to rescue the airman, who was hiding in Iran’s mountainous terrain and evaded capture by Iranian forces.

Trump said the airman, identified only as “Dude 44 Bravo,” continued to climb higher to increase his chances of recovery. He said the airman was seen moving through an unidentified US camera link. “It was like looking for a needle in a haystack,” Trump said.

He said hundreds of American forces joined the search-and-rescue mission and prevented the Iranians from finding him first.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who joined Trump at the event, said the agency was waging a “deception campaign” to convince the Iranians that the airman was elsewhere.

Ratcliffe said Saturday morning the CIA received confirmation that “one of America’s best and bravest was alive and hiding in a mountain crevice, still invisible to the enemy but not to the CIA.”

The pilot, who was shot down on Friday, was rescued on Sunday morning.

“With a breathtaking display of skill and precision, lethality and power, the American military descended on the location, the actual location, engaged the enemy, rescued the trapped officer, eliminated all threats, and exited Iranian territory without sustaining any casualties,” Trump said. he said.

Hegseth said he used his emergency transceiver to show the missing airman’s whereabouts and his first message was “God is good.”

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, said the rescued airman was the “back seat occupant” of the crashed plane.

“In this case, the absolute determination of the backseat occupant to survive made much of our efforts possible,” Caine said.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose and Steve Holland; Editing by David Ljunggren, Michelle Nichols, Deepa Babington and Cynthia Osterman)