{"id":52263,"date":"2026-04-05T05:59:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T05:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/52263\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T05:59:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T05:59:24","slug":"trump-gives-iran-48-hours-to-open-strait-of-hormuz-as-search-continues-for-missing-us-pilot-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/52263\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump gives Iran 48 hours to open Strait of Hormuz as search continues for missing US pilot"},"content":{"rendered":"

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) \u2014 U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> warned Iran to open the crucial Strait of Hormuz<\/a> by his Monday deadline and Tehran called his threat \u201cunbalanced and foolish.\u201d The search for a missing U.S. military pilot<\/a> continued Saturday in a remote part of the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n

Trump has called Tehran \u201cbeaten and completely decimated<\/a> ” in the war<\/a>, now in its sixth week, but the downing of two U.S. warplanes on Friday and Iran\u2019s call to find the \u201cenemy pilot\u201d have again raised the stakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe doors of hell will be opened to you\u201d if Iran\u2019s infrastructure is attacked, Gen. Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi with the country\u2019s joint military command said late Saturday in response to Trump\u2019s renewed threat, state media reported. In turn, the general threatened all infrastructure used by the U.S. military in the region.<\/p>\n

The war began with joint U.S.-Israel strikes on Feb. 28 and has killed thousands, shaken global markets<\/a>, cut off key shipping routes and spiked fuel prices<\/a>. Both sides have threatened, and hit, civilian targets, bringing warnings of possible war crimes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will continue to crush them,\u201d Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, and confirmed that Israel\u2019s military struck a petrochemical complex in Mahshahr that he said helps to fund the war. Five people were killed and 170 injured, Iranian state media reported, citing a provincial security official.<\/p>\n

The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said that an airstrike hit near its Bushehr nuclear facility, killing a security guard and damaging a support building. The head of Russia\u2019s state nuclear corporation, Rosatom, said that 198 workers were being evacuated. It was the fourth time the facility was targeted.<\/p>\n

Hopes for talks<\/p>\n

Pakistan\u2019s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Tahir Andrabi, told The Associated Press that his government\u2019s efforts to broker a ceasefire are \u201cright on track\u201d after Islamabad last week said that it would soon host talks<\/a> between the U.S. and Iran.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said that Iranian officials \u201chave never refused to go to Islamabad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mediators from Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt were working to bring the U.S. and Iran to the negotiating table, according to two regional officials.<\/p>\n

The proposed compromise includes a cessation of hostilities to allow a diplomatic settlement, according to a regional official involved in the efforts and a Gulf diplomat briefed on the matter. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door diplomacy.<\/p>\n

Trump reminded Iran of his deadline in a social media post: \u201cRemember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT. Time is running out \u2014 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them.”<\/p>\n

A missing US pilot<\/p>\n

The U.S. warplane, identified by Iran as a F-15E Strike Eagle, was one of two attacked on Friday. Iran\u2019s joint military command on Saturday said that it also struck two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters, but the AP couldn\u2019t independently verify that.<\/p>\n

The search for the U.S. pilot focused on a mountainous region in Iran\u2019s southwestern province of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad. An anchor on a channel affiliated with Iranian state television urged residents to hand over any \u201cenemy pilot\u201d to police.<\/p>\n

In an email from the Pentagon, obtained by the AP, the military said that it received notification of \u201can aircraft being shot down\u201d in the Middle East. A U.S. crew member was rescued. The Pentagon notified the U.S. House Armed Services Committee that the status of a second service member wasn\u2019t known.<\/p>\n

Trump told NBC News that what happened wouldn\u2019t affect negotiations with Iran.<\/p>\n

A second U.S. Air Force combat aircraft went down in the Middle East on Friday, according to a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military situation. It wasn\u2019t clear if the aircraft crashed or was shot down, or whether Iran was involved.<\/p>\n

Iranian state media said a U.S. A-10 attack aircraft crashed in the Persian Gulf after being struck by Iran\u2019s defense forces.<\/p>\n

Oracle\u2019s Dubai headquarters struck<\/p>\n

The Dubai offices of tech company Oracle was hit after Iran\u2019s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened the firm. Footage verified by the AP outside the UAE showed a large hole in the building\u2019s southwestern corner.<\/p>\n

The sheikhdom\u2019s Dubai Media Office, which speaks for its government, noted a \u201cminor incident caused by debris from an aerial interception that fell on the facade,\u201d saying there were no injuries. Oracle Corp., based in Texas, didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

The Guard has accused some large U.S. tech companies of being involved in \u201cterrorist espionage\u201d operations against the Islamic Republic and called them legitimate targets. Amazon Web Services facilities in the UAE and Bahrain were hit in earlier drone strikes.<\/p>\n

The Bab el-Mandeb Strait<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, issued a veiled threat late Friday to disrupt traffic through a second strategic waterway in the region, the Bab el-Mandeb.<\/p>\n

The strait, 32 kilometers (20 miles) wide, links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. More than a tenth of seaborne global oil and a quarter of container ships pass through it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich countries and companies account for the highest transit volumes through the strait?\u201d Qalibaf wrote.<\/p>\n

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began.<\/p>\n

In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel and 13 U.S. service members<\/a> have been killed. In Lebanon, more than 1,400 people have been killed<\/a> and there have been more than 1 million displaced people<\/a>. Ten Israeli soldiers have died there.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) \u2014 U.S. President Donald Trump warned Iran to open the crucial Strait of Hormuz…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[102,34,2119,101],"class_list":{"0":"post-52263","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-strait-of-hormuz","8":"tag-hormuz","9":"tag-iran","10":"tag-iran-attack","11":"tag-strait-of-hormuz"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116350573685315287","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}