Trump says Iranians are willing to suffer U.S. bombing power plants 'in order to have freedom'

Tehran has rejected the in vogue(p) ceasefire proposition and wants a lasting terminate to the state of war, says Iran's state-run IRNA news agency.

That report came shortly before U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his deadline of Tuesday, 8 p.m. ET for Tehran to open the Strait of Hormuz or see its power plants and other infrastructure targets attacked.

In a news conference Monday, Trump told reporters it would take mere hours to destroy Iran's bridges and power plants.

"We have a plan, because of the power of our military, where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o'clock tomorrow night," Trump said in Washington. Power plants in Iran, he continued, would be "burning, exploding and never to be used again."

He refused to say whether any civilian targets would be off limits in the U.S. Response.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the U.S. That attacking civilian infrastructure is banned under international law, his spokesman said Monday. "Even if specific civilian infrastructure were to qualify as a military objective," spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, an attack would still be prohibited if it risks "excessive incidental civilian harm."

Trump told reporters he's "not at all" concerned about committing war crimes.

Trump issues another deadline in expletive-laden social post as Iran stays defiant

Asked why Iranians would want him to follow up on his threat to blow up the country's infrastructure, Trump said everyday citizens are "willing to suffer ... In order to have freedom."

"‘Please keep bombing. Do it,'" Trump claimed U.S. Officials have heard Iranians say via what he referred to as "intercepts."

"And these are people that are living where the bombs are exploding," he said. He added, "And when we leave and we're not hitting those areas, they're saying, ‘Please come back, come back, come back.'"

"We won't merely accept a ceasefire," Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of the Iranian diplomatic mission in Cairo, told The Associated Press on Monday. "We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won't be attacked again."

On the Strait of Hormuz, Ferdousi Pour said Iranian and Omani officials were working on a mechanism for administrating the shipping chokepoint.

Late Sunday, Egyptian, Pakistani and Turkish mediators circulated a new 45-day ceasefire proposal, in hopes the window would provide enough time for talks to reach a permanent ceasefire amid Trump’s Tuesday deadline for Tehran to reopen the strait.

IRNA said Tehran conveyed its response through Pakistan, a key mediator.

But a regional official involved in talks said efforts had not collapsed.

"We are still talking to both sides," he said, speaking to AP on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door diplomacy.

Trump also described the rescue effort that happened after a U.S. F-15E fighter jet was downed in Iran, and threatened to jail the journalist who first reported that U.S. Forces were searching for an F-15 weapons officer shot down in Iran, if they don't reveal their sources.

"The person that did the story will go to jail if he doesn't say," Trump said.

Trump didn't name the journalist or news organization. He said the leak tipped off the Iranians, endangering the officer and his rescuers. He called the leaker "a sick person."

The operation was ultimately successful and both airmen on board the jet were rescued alive.

Second U.S. Airman from downed fighter jet rescued, Trump escalates threats to Iran

Also Monday, Israel's defence minister said the country has attacked the South Pars petrochemical plant at Asaluyeh in southern Iran, amid a war that began when the U.S. And Israel struck Iran on Feb. 28.

Israel Katz made the announcement after Iran said the facility had been attacked, saying Israel had "just carried out a powerful strike on the largest petrochemical facility in Iran, located in Asaluyeh, a central target responsible for about 50 per cent of the country's petrochemical production."

The gas field shared with Qatar is the world's largest and sits under the Persian Gulf. Iran's semi-official Fars news agency and the judicary's Mizan news agency reported the attack and blamed the U.S. And Israel.

An Israeli attack in March on South Pars facilities sparked major Iranian attacks targeting oil and gas infrastructure across the Gulf Arab states.

U.S.-Israeli strikes kill Iranian military leaders, hit chemical plant

Israel and the United States carried out a wave of attacks Monday, leaving more than 25 people dead, and Iran responded with missile fire on Israel and its Gulf Arab neighbours.

Among those killed in one of the attacks on Tehran was the head of intelligence for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Maj.-Gen. Majid Khademi, according to Iranian state media and Katz.

Israel's military said Monday it also killed the leader of the IRGC's undercover unit in its expeditionary Quds Force.

In a briefing to reporters, Lt.-Col. Nadav Shoshani, a military spokesperson, confirmed the killing of Asghar Bakeri. He said Bakeri had planned attacks on Israeli and U.S. Targets, and on operations in Israel, Syria and Lebanon.

"The Revolutionary Guard are shooting at civilians and we are eliminating the leaders of the terrorists," Katz said. "Iran's leaders live with a sense of being targeted. We will continue to hunt them down one by one."

Katz added Israel had "severely damaged" Iran's steel and petrochemical industries.

"We will continue to crush the Iranian national infrastructure and lead to the erosion and collapse of the terrorist regime, and its capabilities to promote terror and fire at the state of Israel."

Four people were found dead at the site of a missile strike in Haifa, in northern Israel, according to Israel's military. They had been trapped under rubble and were found after hours of overnight rescue efforts, the military said.

António Costa, president of the European Council, called for diplomacy to be given a chance, writing on social media platform X that “any targeting of civilian infrastructure, namely energy facilities, is illegal and unacceptable.”

“Escalation will not achieve a ceasefire and peace,” he said Monday. “Only negotiations will, namely the ongoing efforts led by regional partners.”

The war has led to the death of thousands, shaken global markets, cut off key shipping routes and spiked fuel prices. Both sides have threatened and hit civilian targets, bringing warnings of possible war crimes from the United Nations and international law experts.

The UN's nuclear watchdog on Monday confirmed recent strikes hit close to Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant, with one hitting just 75 metres from the facility's perimeter.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a social media post that its own analysis showed the plant was not damaged as of Sunday.

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Rafael Grossi, the IAEA's director general, called for ceasing such attacks, which cause "a very real danger to nuclear safety."

Iran's Atomic Energy Organization has reported four attacks close to the facility since the war started. The last strike Saturday killed a security guard and damaged a support building, the organization said.

The Bushehr nuclear power plant uses low-enriched uranium from Russia, along with Russian technicians, to supply about 1,000 megawatts of power for Iran.

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