1 of 5 | President Donald Trump makes a statement on Iran from the White House press briefing room in Washington, D.C., on Monday. Photo by Jim Lo Scalzo/UPI | License Photo
U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that the United States is prepared to destroy much of Iran’s civilian infrastructure by midnight Tuesday if no deal is reached between the two countries.
He made the comments to reporters during a White House news briefing on the status of the war in Iran. He and military officials also offered new details about the rescue of two pilots of an F-15E that was shot down over Iran on Friday.
Trump repeated his threat to send Iran back to “the stone ages.”
“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, where every power plant in Iran will be out of business — burning, exploding and never to be used again,” he said.
“I mean, complete demolition by 12 o’clock, and it will happen over a period of 4 hours.”
Trump said he didn’t want to destroy Iran’s infrastructure.
“It will take them 100 years to rebuild right now, if we left today, it would take them 20 years to rebuild their country, and it would never be as good as it was. And the only way they’re going to able to rebuild their country is to utilize the genius of the United States of America.”
Despite the threat to completely decimate Iran’s infrastructure, Trump said he wouldn’t say whether the Iran war was coming to an end.
“This is a critical period,” he said.
Trump previously gave Iran a deadline of 8 p.m. Tuesday to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to traffic by the United States and its allies.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, provided new details about the shooting down of an F-15E over Iran and — around the same time — an A-10 Thunderbolt. He said the A-10 was part of the rescue operation to reach the two pilots of the F-15E when it was hit by enemy fire.
Caine said the pilot of the single-seat A-10 — known as a Sandy — flew the aircraft out of Iranian territory before ejecting from the plane. He was then safely rescued.
The incident happened Friday after the Iranian military shot down an F-15E fighter jet carrying two pilots. The jet crashed in Iran, sparking a rescue mission that was able to immediately recover one of the pilots.
Trump announced Sunday that the mission located and rescued the second pilot, who was seriously injured.
Caine, Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth detailed the military’s efforts to save the remaining missing pilot during Monday’s news briefing.
“During this engagement, one of the Sandy aircraft, the one primarily responsible for communicating with the downed pilot, was hit by enemy fire,” Caine said.
He added that the pilot of the A-10 had a clear mission: “Get to the survivor, bring the rescue force forward, and put themselves between that survivor on the ground and the enemy.”
