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 the consequences.
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.
“The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night,” he told a White House press conference.
U.S. Defense Secretary 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.
Trump, joined by senior national security advisers, described in detail the operation to recover a downed American airman over the weekend from Iranian territory.
He said the unidentified airman was hiding in mountains and kept climbing in order to improve the chances for recovery. “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.”
(Reporting by Nandita Bose and Steve Holland; Writing by Ryan Patrick Jones; Editing by David Ljunggren)