Trump Gives Iran 8 pm eastern time deadline

An airstrike early Monday struck a residential building in a city southwest of Iran’s capital, Tehran, killing at least 13 people, Iranian media reported.

The semiofficial Fars news agency and Nour News reported the strike near Eslamshar.

It wasn’t clear why the building had been struck.

Neither Israel nor the United States claimed the strikes early Monday, but they came after Trump issued a profanity-laced threat to Iran that it must reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

The state-run IRAN daily newspaper said in an online message that an airstrike in a residential area of Qom killed at least five people. Qom is a holy Shiite seminary city just south of Tehran.

It wasn’t unclear what the target of the strike was.

Iran has not provided overall casualty figures from the war in days. It also hasn’t discussed its materiel losses.

AP

Israel’s military warns the public of another missile barrage coming from Iran, the third-such alert of the day.

Hezbollah said it launched a barrage of rockets towards northern Israel, targeting several towns, as tensions escalate along the border.

Lebanon has been increasingly drawn into the conflict, with the Iran-backed group resuming cross-border attacks in recent weeks.

Israeli air defences intercepted incoming Iranian missiles targeting southern Israel, with sirens sounding across the region, including in Beersheba.

Israeli media reported that the attack was successfully thwarted, with no casualties recorded.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters is travelling to Washington for talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“We intend to discuss our shared commitments to cooperate in the Pacific and Indo-Pacific, as well as significant international developments – particularly the conflict in the Middle East and its impacts on our region,” Peters said ahead of his departure on Monday. He is expected to return on Friday.

“These meetings will advance New Zealand’s diplomatic, security and economic interests and facilitate greater mutual understanding of our respective priorities.”

An Israeli airstrike on Sunday hit an apartment building in a town east of Beirut, killing three people, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

“Israeli enemy airstrike on the hills of Ain Saadeh kills three civilians, including two women, and injures three others,” the ministry said in a statement.

-AFP

Iran and the United States have received a proposal to end hostilities, including an immediate ceasefire that could take effect on Monday (April 6) and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a source familiar with the discussions said.

The framework, put together by Pakistan and shared with both sides overnight, outlines a two-stage approach: an immediate ceasefire followed by a broader agreement to end the conflict.

“All elements need to be agreed today,” the source said, adding that the initial understanding would take the form of a memorandum of understanding, to be finalised electronically through Pakistan, which is acting as the sole communication channel in the talks.

The intelligence chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Major General Seyyed Majid Khademi, has been killed, according to an official statement.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Khademi died in the early hours of the day in what it described as a “terrorist attack by the American-Zionist enemy”, as reported by Fars news agency.

A US-Israeli strike targeted Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, causing damage to parts of the campus, including the mosque building, according to reports.

Mohsen Dodangeh, the mayor of Tehran’s district 9, said the attack also hit a gas facility at the university, triggering an explosion and prompting a temporary suspension of gas supply.

The blast caused panic among nearby residents, with several homes evacuated as a precaution.

University head Masoud Tajrishi said the strike targeted one of the institution’s scientific and cultural buildings, also damaging surrounding structures.

-PressTv

Tehran’s emergency services said early Monday that six children, four girls and two boys under the age of ten, were among those killed in overnight US-Israeli strikes, describing them as victims of violence “that had no connection to their innocent and childlike lives.”

The agency said further details, including the exact location, number of injured and the status of rescue operations, would be released later.

Earlier, officials in Baharestan county said residential areas were hit in the strikes, with two housing units in the Qaleh Mir complex destroyed. At least 13 people were killed and 20 injured, all of whom were taken to medical facilities.

-PressTv

Iran has criticised the response of the International Atomic Energy Agency following an attack near the Bushehr nuclear facility, warning that inaction “emboldens aggression” against such sites.

In a letter to the agency’s director, Iran’s atomic energy chief Mohammad Eslami said the country’s only operational nuclear power plant has been targeted four times, with the latest strike near the site on April 4 killing a security staff member and injuring others.

He cautioned that continued attacks could risk the release of radioactive material from an active reactor, with “irreparable consequences” for people, the environment and neighbouring countries.

-Al Jazeera

Inaction by the UN nuclear watchdog “emboldens aggression” against ‌nuclear facilities such as the Bushehr power ⁠plant, Iran’s atomic energy chief Mohammad Eslami said on Monday ‌in a letter addressed to ‌the International Atomic Energy ‌Agency’s ⁠director.

Mr. Eslami said Iran’s ⁠only functioning nuclear power plant had so far been targeted four ‌times, with the most recent attack in its vicinity on April 4 ‌killing a security staff member and injuring others.

He warned that ⁠such attacks could risk the release of radioactive ‌material from an operating reactor and could have “irreparable consequences” for people, the environment and neighbouring countries.

-Reuters

South Korea will send five Korean-flagged ships to the Saudi Arabian Red Sea port of Yanbu to help establish alternative oil supply routes to avoid the disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, a ruling party MP said.

“Korean-flagged vessels need to be dispatched to alternative routes” to secure crude supplies using export routes that bypass the Strait of Hormuz, lawmaker Ahn Do-geol told reporters after a meeting with relevant agencies, including the energy ministry.

“We are pushing to deploy five South Korean-flagged vessels to Yanbu port in Saudi Arabia, in the Red Sea region,” he said, without giving details.

The Bahrain Defense Force Command has stated its air defence systems have intercepted and destroyed 188 missiles and 468 drones launched from Iran since the start of the war.

In a statement released on Instagram, the organisation said that the “use of ballistic missiles and drones to target civilian objects and private property is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and the Charter of the United Nations.”

At a press conference in Tehran on Monday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said Tehran will defend its country with “all its might” when necessary.

He accused the United States and Israel of having “no red lines” and disregarding international law. Baghaei rejected a reported 15-point US ceasefire proposal conveyed through mediators, describing it as “illogical” and unacceptable.

He stressed that talks cannot proceed alongside threats, insisting Iran’s national security and interests are the key criteria for any agreement.

Israel’s emergency services report that at least 28 impact sites in central Israel, blaming Iranian cluster munitions.

Ramat Gan, Bnei Brak, and Givatayim were hit, and a man in his 40s was “moderately wounded”, according to medics.

Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman, claims Israeli forces killed the leader of the IRGC’s undercover unit in its expeditionary Quds Force, Asghar Bakeri.

Iran has yet to comment on this development.

Abbas Araghchi of Iran and Jean-Noël Barrot of France spoke on the phone today, a statement carried by Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reports.

Regarding US President Trump’s threats to hit civilian infrastructure in Iran if it does not open the Strait of Hormuz, Araghchi said, “This threat amounts to normalising war crimes and genocide, and if carried out, it will undoubtedly face a decisive and comprehensive response from the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani has warned against the “irresponsible targeting of vital infrastructure, particularly that related to water and food, and energy facilities” amid the ongoing US-Israeli war against Iran.

The Qatari PM’s comments were made during a phone conversation on Monday afternoon with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store.

His comments, the Qatari foreign ministry said, were made in the context of “the necessity of stopping Iran’s unjustified aggressions against Qatar and the countries of the region”.

United States President Donald Trump has threatened to bomb Iran’s energy and water facilities, and Tehran has warned that it will engage in tit-for-tat actions across the Gulf. On Sunday, Iran hit two Kuwaiti water desalination plants.

According to Al Jazeera, Iran’s Fars news agency says a petrochemical complex in the city of Marvdasht has come under attack by US-Israeli strikes. The fire at the complex was brought under control within minutes, Fars added, limiting damage to a small part of the industrial unit. No casualties were reported and operations at the facility were not disrupted. This comes amidst rising concerns surrounding Trump's sweeping claims. Seven dead have also been killed following Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon.

As reported by Al Jazeera, Israel’s military says it recently waged a new series of broad strikes in Tehran and across the country.

They also identified three airports in Iran which they targeted in overnight aerial attacks, which it claimed targeted military infrastructure. It identified the airports as “Bahram Airport, Mehrabad Airport and Azmayesh Airport”.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels say they took part in a coordinated attack with Iran and Hezbollah targeting Israel’s southern city of Eilat.

In a statement carried by the Houthi-affiliated Al-Masirah channel, the Yemeni group said the attack targeted “several vital military sites”.

As we reported earlier, Israel’s military said Eilat had been targeted by drones coming from Yemen.

We are getting reports of another deadly Israeli military attack in Gaza.

According to a source in al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, Israeli drones and fire from a military vehicle have killed at least 10 people near central Gaza’s Maghazi camp.

“Because it’s there for the taking, there’s not a thing they can do about it,” Trump says of Iran’s vast oil reserves.

“Unfortunately, the American people would like to see us come home. If it were up to me, I’d take the oil, I’d keep the oil, I would make plenty of money,” he said.

The US president has reiterated that his administration “sent guns” to try to help protesters in Iran taking part in mass antigovernment demonstrations in December and January.

“They were supposed to go to the people so they could fight back,” Trump said.

He followed up by adding that the guns were kept by “a group of people” without specifying whom he was referring to.

The US president has repeatedly set – and then pushed back – deadlines for Iran to respond to his demands for ending the war, but he says his Tuesday deadline for reopening the Strait of Hormuz is final.

Trump also said Iran’s response to a US proposal to end the conflict was significant but not enough.

“They made a proposal, and it’s a significant proposal. It’s a significant step. It’s not good enough,” Trump said.

“It could end very quickly, the war, if they do what they have to do. They have to do certain things. They know that, they’ve been negotiating I think in good faith.”

The Israeli army has launched a raid on the town of Zrarieh in southern Lebanon, our colleagues on the ground are reporting.

As we reported earlier, at least 1,497 people have been killed and 4,639 wounded since Israel escalated its attacks on Lebanon on March 2.

The US president has claimed the US’s war on Iran is going well and that US forces could “take out” the whole country in a single night.

“The entire country can be taken out in one night,” said Trump. “And that night might be tomorrow night.”

That includes, according to Trump:

•  Four bombers

• 64 fighter jets

• 48 refuelling tankers

• 13 rescue aircraft

Trump says US authorities are trying to identify the person who “leaked” information that a second airman was stranded in Iran after the first one was rescued.

He says Iran was not aware of the status of the second pilot prior to the report, which made the US rescue operation “much more difficult”.

Trump said US authorities would demand the media company that published the report to provide the identity of the leaker or face prosecution.

“We’re looking very hard to find that leaker,” said Trump. “We think we’ll be able to find it out because we’re going to go to the media company that released it and we’re going to say: ‘National security – give it up or go to jail’.”

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth is now speaking to reporters about the US’s operation to retrieve the downed airman, which he said caused no US casualties.

The US Defence Secretary says US forces will carry out more strikes on Iran today than on any other day since the war started, with plans to further escalate tomorrow.

“Today will be the largest volume of strikes since day one of this operation,” said Hegseth, repeating a claim he has made on multiple occasions throughout the war.

“Tomorrow, even more than today. Then Iran has a choice,” he said, apparently alluding to US President Trump’s ultimatum for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz.

• Rescue mission of second airman was met with gunfire from close range, equipment including helicopters was damaged, two planes were left on site and destroyed.

• The rescue mission involved roughly 155 US aircraft, including 64 fighter jets, 48 refuelling tankers and 13 rescue aircraft.

• Officials will demand the identity of the “leaker” who first revealed to a media organisation that a US airman had been downed in Iran.

• More than 10,000 combat flights have been conducted over Iran since the start of the war, and 13,000 targets have been attacked.

• The president said Iran can be taken out in one night, and that night may be Tuesday.

U.S. President ‌Donald Trump on Monday told ⁠reporters that Iran ‌had to ‌agree ‌to ⁠a ⁠deal with the U.S. that was ‌acceptable to him by ‌Tuesday deadline, and that free traffic ⁠of oil ‌through the Strait of Hormuz ‌must be part of it

I ended 8 wars, including India and Pakistan, so much so that the Prime Minister of Pakistan told me that I saved 30 to 50 million lives,” Trump said in the press conference.

We asked NATO and all our allies to help, but it was not forced on anyone. The truth is, Putin is not afraid of NATO , he is afraid of the United States. Countries like Australia, South Korea and Japan didn’t help us, even though we have our troops stationed on the borders of South Korea and Japan, protecting them from North Korea. Kim Jong Un likes me , he didn’t like Biden. NATO, frankly, is a paper tiger. And if you really want to know where all of this began, it started with Greenland.