President Donald Trump warned that “hell will reign down” on Iran within 48 hours unless the country opens the Strait of Hormuz.
“Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT. Time is running out – 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them. Glory be to GOD!” Trump said in a Truth Social post Saturday.
Around a fifth of the world’s oil and gas passes through the Strait of Hormuz, which is at the center of the conflict, and Iran’s tight grip over its navigation has caused chaos for import-dependent countries.
Trump’s latest warning to the Iranian regime, where he appeared to confuse the use of “rain” with “reign,” comes as the search for a missing U.S. fighter pilot continues after a F-15 was shot down Friday.
More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began six weeks ago, including 13 U.S. service members.
The president fired off a slew of Truth Social posts Saturday morning, where he hit out at the media and touted job figures, but he did not reference the missing pilot.
Two American warplanes were shot down in separate incidents Friday as a search and rescue mission was launched to find the F-15 crew member who was forced to eject. An A-10 attack plane was reportedly hit in the Persian Gulf region, and the pilot was rescued after making it to Kuwaiti airspace, officials said.
Trump told The Independent that he is not yet ready to say what the U.S. will do if Iranian forces get to the downed airman first. “We hope that’s not going to happen,” the president said in a brief phone call Friday.
Iran was also issuing threats Saturday as the regime claimed it had used a new air defence system to target the U.S. fighter jet.
A spokesperson for the joint military command said that the country would “definitely achieve full control” over its airspace, according to Iranian state media.
Iran is reportedly offering locals around $65,000 to anyone who hands over the missing pilot alive.
An anchor on the Iranian state media channel said: “If you capture the enemy pilot or pilots alive and hand them over to the police, you will receive a precious prize.”
The downed F-15 is the fourth American fighter aircraft — and the sixth military plane — lost since Trump started the massive air campaign against Tehran on February 28. Three U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle jets were downed by friendly fire over Kuwait in March.
The downing of the military jet occurred just two days after Trump had declared in a national address that the U.S. had “beaten and completely decimated Iran.”
Both the U.S. and Israel had recently boasted about the supposed decimation of Iran’s air defenses.
The violence showed no sign of slowing Saturday. Iran’s atomic agency said an airstrike hit near its Bushehr nuclear facility, killing a security guard and damaging a support building.
An Iranian drone also damaged the Dubai headquarters of the American tech giant Oracle on Saturday after Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened the firm, according to the Associated Press.
The sheikhdom’s Dubai Media Office, which speaks for its government, said a “minor incident caused by debris from an aerial interception that fell on the facade of the Oracle building in Dubai Internet City,” adding there were no injuries.
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