Iran on Saturday brushed aside US President Donald Trump’s threat to destroy Tehran’s vital infrastructure if a peace deal is not reached within 48 hours, calling the ultimatum “a helpless, nervous, unbalanced and stupid action”.
Echoing Trump’s language, he warned that “the gates of hell will open for you”.
The response from General Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi, representing the “Khatam al-Anbiya” Central Headquarters, comes after Trump wrote on Truth Social that “all hell reign down” on Iran if a peace deal is not reached and the critical checkpoint Strait of Hormuz is not reopened.
Abdollahi warned that any US or Israeli strike on Iran’s infrastructure would be met with “devastating and continuous” attacks on all US military assets in the Middle East and on Israeli infrastructure, per Fars news agency. “After having admitted successive defeats, the aggressive and warmongering president of the United States has, in a desperate, nervous, unbalanced and foolish move, threatened (to target) Iran’s infrastructure and national assets,” he said.
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He said the Iranian armed forces would not hesitate “for a moment” to defend the country’s rights and protect national assets and “will put the aggressors in their place.”
An Iranian security official has also said that Tehran is moving forward in the ongoing war according to its plans and “specific target bank” and warned of “a big surprise” in store for the USA and Israel. In a statement carried by the Fars news agency, the official said the USA’s “target bank is inaccurate” and dismissed Trump’s threats to strike bridges as “laughable”, arguing they were a response to the “failure of American military operations”, including the downing of its warplanes.
The official added, “We have learned well in asymmetric warfare how to wear down the enemy. America has failed in its strategy of clean, quick, and easy attack.”
Earlier, Trump had given a 10-day deadline to Iran on March 26 and the recent ultimatum came as it is due to expire on April 6. “As per Iranian Government request, please let this statement serve to represent that I am pausing the period of Energy Plant destruction by 10 days to Monday, April 6, 2026, at 8 P.M., Eastern Time. Talks are ongoing and, despite erroneous statements to the contrary by the Fake News Media and others, they are going very well,” an earlier post had read.
A similar warning was issued by Trump on March 21, when he had threatened to “hit and obliterate” Iranian power plants if the country failed to fully open the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours. He postponed the strikes two days later after “productive conversations” with Tehran.
Through the Strait of Hormuz, which sees the movement of 20 per cent of the world’s oil, Iran has authorised the passage of ships carrying essential and humanitarian goods, Tasnim news agency reported.
Tensions continue to escalate in the Middle East region as the war that began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 and subsequent retaliations enters the sixth week. As of Saturday, over 3,500 people have died in Iran, more than 1,300 are dead in Iran, while Israel and the US have reported 19 and 13 deaths respectively. At least 108 people have been killed in Iraq, while the number of deaths in UAE, Qatar and Kuwait stand at 12, seven and seven people respectively.
The counter-attacks continue as the US claims it has arrested two family members of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani after their residency permits were rescinded. Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike in the Iraqi capital Baghdad in January 2020.
This came a day after Tehran said it had shot down an F-15 warplane and a A-10 ground attack aircraft. The US media reported United States special forces had rescued one of its two crew members, with the other still missing. The local Mehr news agency on Saturday quoted the deputy governor of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, Fattah Mohammadi, as saying the search for the airman involved “popular forces and tribesmen alongside military forces and is still ongoing”.
Among the strikes traded on Saturday was also a hit near Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant, leading to the evacuation of 198 workers. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned that continued attacks on the plant on the southern coast could eventually lead to radioactive fallout that would “end life in GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) capitals, not Tehran”. Bushehr is considerably closer to Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar than it is to the Iranian capital.