Trump provides update on airman rescue, threatens strikes on infrastructure
By Jackson Richman
Contributing Writer
Iran has rejected a new cease-fire proposal from the United States, insisting instead on a permanent end to the conflict along with firm guarantees against future attacks, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.
The decision, announced on Monday, came just hours before U.S. President Donald Trump’s deadline for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face potential strikes on key infrastructure, including power plants and bridges.
Iran communicated its response through Pakistan, signaling that it is unwilling to accept a temporary pause in hostilities.
“We won’t merely accept a ceasefire,” Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of Iran’s diplomatic mission in Cairo, said in remarks to The Associated Press.
“We only accept an end to the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again.”
At the White House, Trump said Iran is making a mistake by rejecting the proposal.
“They just don’t want to say ‘uncle,’” Trump told reporters. “They don’t want to cry, as the expression goes ‘uncle,’ but they will. And if they don’t, they’ll have no bridges. They’ll have no power plants. They’ll have no anything. I won’t go further because there are other things that are worse than those two.”
According to IRNA, Tehran’s proposal includes 10 provisions, such as ending regional conflicts, ensuring safe navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, lifting economic sanctions, and initiating reconstruction efforts.
Iranian and Omani officials are working on a framework to manage shipping through the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, a critical global energy corridor.
Meanwhile, tensions escalated further as Israel launched strikes on Iran’s South Pars natural gas field — the world’s largest, shared with Qatar — targeting a major source of the country’s revenue.
The attack also killed two senior commanders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
Israel described the strike as an effort to weaken Iran’s economic capacity, though it appeared separate from the U.S. ultimatum.
The development raises doubts about the viability of a proposed 45-day cease-fire amid rapidly intensifying hostilities.
The Strait of Hormuz remains at the center of the crisis. Iran’s control over the passage has already driven up oil prices and rattled global markets.
In Tehran, explosions were reported throughout the day, with residents describing continuous sounds of air defenses, drones and low-flying aircraft.
Among those killed in recent strikes was Maj. Gen. Majid Khademi, head of intelligence for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, along with Asghar Bakeri, a senior figure in its Quds Force, according to Iranian and Israeli sources.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz signaled that such operations would continue.
“We will continue to hunt them down one by one,” he said, referring to senior Iranian officials.
Israeli forces also reported overnight strikes on three airports in Tehran — Bahram, Mehrabad, and Azmayesh — claiming to have destroyed dozens of aircraft and helicopters belonging to the Iranian air force.
The conflict is spilling across the region.
Gulf countries — including Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia — have activated air defenses in response to Iranian missiles and drones targeting infrastructure such as oil facilities.
In Israel, a missile strike hit the northern city of Haifa, killing four members of the same family when a residential building collapsed.
Despite ongoing mediation efforts — particularly through Pakistan — progress remains uncertain.
Officials involved in the talks say negotiations are at an advanced stage but face disruption from parties seeking to derail them.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has maintained that diplomacy cannot proceed under threat.
“Negotiations are entirely incompatible with ultimatums, crimes, and threats of war crimes,” said its spokesman, Esmail Baghaei.
This marks the latest instance of Iran rejecting a U.S.-backed cease-fire, underscoring the widening gap between calls for a temporary truce and demands for a lasting resolution.
On Monday, President Donald Trump held a press briefing that lasted more than an hour and 20 minutes, providing updates on the war in Iran, including the rescue of two F-15 crew members.
Trump Says He Can’t Talk About Cease-Fire
Trump said he can’t discuss a cease-fire with Iran, but a party is willing to participate.
“I can tell you that we have an active, willing participant on the other side,” he said. “They would like to be able to make a deal. I can’t say any more than that.”
Trump did not name the participant.
Trump said he is “very disappointed in NATO” for its response to the U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran. He said he told the military alliance that he would appreciate assistance with Iran, but the group indicated they would rather wait until the conflict was over.
“I’m very disappointed in NATO,” the president said. “I think it’s a mark on NATO that will … never disappear in my mind.”
“NATO is a paper tiger,” Trump said.
Trump also called out several countries that are not in NATO, for declining to help with the ongoing war with Iran.
“It’s not just NATO,” he said. “You know who else didn’t help us? South Korea didn’t help us. You know who else didn’t help us? Australia didn’t help us. You know who else didn’t help us? Japan.”
There are 50,000 U.S. soldiers in Japan, the president said, and 45,000 in South Korea.
Trump said if Iran doesn’t make a deal, its infrastructure will be wiped out.
“We have a plan … where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o’clock tomorrow night,” Trump said from the White House.
“It’ll happen over a period of four hours, if we wanted to,” the president said, before clarifying that “we don’t want that to happen.”
Trump declined to say if any civilian targets would be off limits to the United States.
Trump Prefers US Charge Tolls for Ships to Go Through Strait of Hormuz
Trump said he prefers that the United States charge tolls on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
He spoke in response to a question about whether he supports Iran charging tolls for boats to pass through the strait.
“I’d rather do that than let them. Why shouldn’t we?” he said. “We’re the winner. We won, OK? They are militarily defeated. The only thing they have is a psychology of, ‘Oh, we’re to drop a couple of mines in the water.’”
Trump also responded to questions about the Kurdish people’s involvement in the conflict with Iran, saying he wants them to “stay away.”
“I’d rather have them stay away, because I think they bring with them some problems and some difficulties,” he said.
21 Military Aircraft Deployed for First Rescue Mission
Trump said 21 military aircraft were deployed on the mission to rescue the pilot of an F-15 fighter jet that crashed in Iran. He also described a daring rescue mission for the second crew member of the jet shot down by the Iranian military.
“The heroic F-15 weapons system officer had evaded capture on the ground in Iran for almost 48 hours,” Trump said during the press conference. “That’s a long time when you’re in tough shape and when you’re bleeding.”
Trump called the rescue of two airmen “one of the largest, most complex, most harrowing, combat searches” in American history.
The president said that “we had great talent, [and] we got a little luck, too,” referencing the successful retrieval.
He said he was asked to make a decision about how to respond to the two airmen’s presence behind enemy lines.
“I ordered the U.S. armed forces to do whatever was necessary to bring our brave warriors back home,” he said.
He noted that it was a “risky decision, because we could have ended up with 100 dead as opposed to one or two … but in the United States military, we leave no American behind.”
The second mission involved 155 aircraft, including four bombers, 64 fighters, 48 refueling tankers, 13 rescue aircraft, and more, according to Trump.
“We were bringing them all over, and a lot of it was subterfuge,” he said.
Trump praised CIA Director John Ratcliffe for leading the mission to find the missing weapons system officer.
“He did a phenomenal job that night,” Trump said of Ratcliffe. “It’s like finding a needle in a haystack, finding this pilot, and the CIA was unbelievable.”
Trump let Ratcliffe take the podium next to discuss the rescue mission. Ratliffe said the United States used covert capabilities to help find the missing crew member who was hiding in an Iranian mountain crevice.
“At the president’s direction, we deployed both human assets and exquisite technologies that no other intelligence service in the world possesses to a daunting challenge comparable to hunting for a single grain of sand in the middle of a desert,” he said.
Ratcliffe said there was a deception campaign.
“This was also a race against the clock, as it was critical that we locate the downed aviator as quickly as possible, while at the same time keeping our enemies misdirected,” he said.
“For that reason, in addition to the human and technical assets deployed by the president to find our airmen, CIA executed a deception campaign to confuse the Iranians who were desperately hunting for our airmen.”
Trump: ‘Not Everybody Was on Board’ With Rescue Mission
When asked about whether there was pushback on the daring rescue mission for the downed weapons system officer, Trump said, “Not everybody was on board.”
“There [were] military people, very professional, that preferred not doing it,” Trump said. “There were military people that said, ‘You just don’t do this. You don’t go into the heart of a very powerful military.’”
Pointing to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan “Raizin” Caine, the president said, “These two were totally on board.”
Trump said he was advised of how dangerous and potentially costly the mission could have been in regards to equipment and American soldiers’ lives.
“I just felt it was worth it,” Trump said.
Trump Says Military Destroyed Planes After Iran Rescue
Trump said the military had to blow up the planes used to bring rescuers into Iran and used more lightweight planes to exit the area inside Iran.
The president said two “large,” “pretty old” planes were used to bring in personnel and equipment to rescue the two airmen: “We needed a lot more equipment going in than coming out.”
He said that terrain and moisture in the area made it too difficult for the larger planes to get off the ground again, once the airmen were located: “We had a contingency plan … where lighter, faster aircraft came in,” he said, noting that three lighter planes brought the rescuers out.
Trump also lauded the military members who partially reassembled the helicopters used in the rescue in less than 10 minutes.
“They rebuilt these helicopters in less than 10 minutes, and that was one of the more amazing things,” he said.
The older planes were blown up because of the equipment on board, according to the president.
Coordination Call Never Stopped During Rescue, Says Hegseth
Hegseth said the coordination call during the rescue of the F-15 airmen shot down over Iran never stopped.
“Inside our SCIF, our secure facility, we have a running VTC, a running coordination cell, and the top of it read … 45 hours and 56 minutes,” he said.
“For 45 hours and 56 minutes, we held that call open for coordination. From the moment our pilots went down, our mission was unblinking.
“The call never dropped. The meeting never stopped. The planning never ceased.
“The president demanded rapid, decisive action. He backed our military with the full weight of his resolve, refusing to let enemy propaganda or tactical setbacks deter us.”
Hegseth said the downed airman’s first message to alert the military of his location was, “God is good.”
The secretary gave details of the rescue, saying the pilot evaded capture for more than a day, scaling rugged terrain while being hunted by the enemy.
“When he was finally able to activate his emergency transponder, his first message was simple, and it was powerful … ‘God is good.’”
Hegseth said the airman was “shot down on a Friday, Good Friday; hidden in a cave, a crevice, all of Saturday; and rescued on Sunday, flown out of Iran as the sun was rising, on Easter Sunday.”
Troy Myers, Savannah Hulsey Pointer, the Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
