By Nandita Bose and Steve Holland
WASHINGTON, April 6 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday told reporters that Iran could be taken out in one night, “and that night might be tomorrow night,” warning Tehran it had to make a deal by Tuesday night or face wider bombing raids.
Trump had earlier vowed to enforce a Tuesday night deadline for Iran to agree to a ceasefire deal or face broad attacks on power plants and other critical infrastructure. Trump is demanding Iran forswear nuclear weapons and reopen the Strait of Hormuz oil transit waterway.
“The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night,” Trump told a White House press conference.
“I hope I don’t have to do it,” Trump said.
Critics have said Trump would be committing war crimes if the U.S. attacked civilian power plants, a point that Trump dismissed on Monday.
“I’m not worried about it. You know what’s a war crime? Having a nuclear weapon,” Trump said earlier on Monday during an Easter egg event for children on the White House South Lawn.
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth told the briefing that the largest volume of strikes since day one of the operation against Iran would take place on Monday and warned Tuesday would have even more.
RESCUE OPERATION
Trump, joined by Hegseth and other top national security advisers, described in detail the weekend U.S. operation to recover a downed American airman who hid in mountainous Iranian terrain and eluded capture by Iranian forces.
He said the airman, identified only by “Dude 44 Bravo,” kept climbing higher in order to improve the chances for recovery. He said the airman was seen moving via an unidentified U.S. camera link. “It was like finding a needle in a haystack,” Trump said.
Hundreds of American forces were involved in the search and recovery mission and to prevent the Iranians from finding him first, he said.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who joined Trump at the event, said the agency had engaged in a “deception campaign” to convince the Iranians the airman was somewhere else.
Ratcliffe said that on Saturday morning the CIA got confirmation that “one of America’s best and bravest was alive and concealed in a mountain crevice, still invisible to the enemy, but not to the CIA.”
The pilot, shot down on Friday, was recovered on Sunday morning.
“In a breathtaking show of skill and precision, lethality and force, America’s military descended on the area, the real area, engaged the enemy, rescued the stranded officer, destroyed all threats and exited Iranian territory while taking no casualties of any kind,” Trump said.
Hegseth said the lost airman used an emergency transponder to show where he was and his first message was: “God is good.”
General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the recovered airman had been the “back seater” on the downed aircraft.
“In this case, the back seater’s absolute commitment to surviving made much of our efforts possible,” Caine said.
‘WILLING TO SUFFER’
Trump said, without providing evidence, that the United States has “numerous intercepts” from Iranian civilians urging the U.S. not to let up in trying to dislodge the Iranian government from power.
“They would be willing to suffer that in order to have freedom,” Trump said.
Speaking to reporters earlier at a White House Easter event, Trump said a proposal offered by Iran was inadequate.
“They made a proposal, and it’s a significant proposal. It’s a significant step. It’s not good enough,” Trump told reporters during the Easter event at the White House.
Trump said the five-week conflict could end quickly if Iran does “what they have to do.”
“They have to do certain things. They know that, they’ve been negotiating I think in good faith,” he said.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose and Steve Holland; Editing by David Ljunggren, Michelle Nichols and Deepa Babington)
