Tag: iran

Trump’s Monstrous Threats Against the Iranian People

The president marked Easter with more deranged threats against the country and people of Iran:

The US president gave Iran until 8pm eastern time on Tuesday to reopen the crucial shipping lane after earlier threatening to unleash “hell” in an expletive-laden social media post.

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday. “There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”

The president is making explicit threats to commit massive war crimes against the civilian population. He means to inflict collective punishment on tens of millions of people because their government will not yield to his unhinged demands. He is treating the Iranian people as hostages, and he is threatening to shoot the hostages if he doesn’t get what he wants. The message the president has sent amounts to telling the Iranian people, “Trump, or I burn the country.”

It is not an exaggeration to say that the president is threatening genocidal violence against the people of Iran. Trump has referred to Iranians as “animals” in a chilling echo of Israeli officials’ statements at the start of the genocidal war in Gaza. He said this morning that a “whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back” if Iran does not capitulate. This is eliminationist language directed at a country of more than ninety million people. These are the words of a madman, and coming from the head of a nuclear weapons state they are terrifying.

It should be clear by now that this is a war on the Iranian people, and it was never going to be anything else. The aggressors want to wreck Iran and leave it in ruins. That should have been obvious from the start after what the Israeli government did to Gaza and is currently doing to Lebanon with Washington’s full support, but now it is undeniable.

Trump’s Iran policy has always been defined by collective punishment. His “maximum pressure” sanctions have impoverished the Iranian people and strangled their economy for the last eight years. Attacks on civilian infrastructure in his criminal war threaten the entire population with even greater deprivation and hardship. As ever, the destruction is the point. The president is not really trying to achieve anything. He simply wishes to punish and harm those that will not submit to him.

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Pete Hegseth Says Largest Volume of Strikes to Date in Iran Expected Today Before Tomorrow’s “Complete Demolition” of Iran

War Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters on Monday that Iran would face its heaviest round of US strikes ahead of Trump’s deadline for Iran to make a deal and reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face “complete demolition.”

President Trump held a press conference on Monday with Secretary Hegseth, Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine, and CIA Director John Rattcliffe, following the successful search and rescue operation for the crew of an F-15 Strike Eagle fighter jet that was shot down last week over Iran.

While discussing the mission to rescue two downed Airmen in Iran over the weekend, Hegseth praised God for the successful mission and the Easter miracle, commending the brave heroes’ “faith and fighting spirit.” The pilot who was stranded for nearly 50 hours in enemy territory, Hegseth said, sent his first message, after surviving the incident and making it to safety, from inside Iran on his emergency transponder, saying “Good is good.”

He further revealed that the President had ordered “the largest volume of strikes since day one of this operation” before tomorrow’s deadline, where bombs will rain down “even more than today.”

“And then Iran has a choice. Choose wisely because this President does not play around. You can ask Soleimani, you can ask Maduro, you can ask Khamenei,” Hegseth declared.

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Israel bombs Tehran as Iranians taunt Trump

Israel has conducted yet another wave of strikes against infrastructure targets including an airport in Tehran, after striking at least two petrochemical facilities in Iran the day before.

In the meantime, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Defense claimed the debris from a successful “interception and destruction” of at least seven ballistic missiles fell in the vicinity of its energy facilities, with the damage still being “assessed.”

Israeli forces attacked Iran’s largest petrochemical facility in the South Pars natural gas field and a petrochemical complex in the city of Marvdasht earlier on Monday – as US President Donald Trump has stepped up threats to strike Iran’s infrastructure if American and Israel-linked shipping is not allowed through the Strait of Hormuz by Wednesday.

“It is Trump who has about 20 hours to either surrender to Iran or see his allies return to the Stone Age. We will not back down!” Mahdi Mohammadi, a senior adviser to Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, claimed.

Tehran has reportedly rejected a US ceasefire proposal, circulated by Egyptian, Pakistani, and Turkish mediators, instead offering a ten‑clause plan that calls for a permanent end to the war. The demands reportedly include an end to conflicts across the region, protocols to ensure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, the lifting of sanctions, and provisions for reconstruction.

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IDF Issues Chilling Nationwide Warning to Iranian Civilians — “Stay Off Trains” Ahead of Suspected Rail Strikes

The situation inside Iran is rapidly escalating.

On Tuesday morning, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued a rare and highly specific warning directly to Iranian civilians, urging them to avoid all train travel and railway infrastructure for roughly 12 hours.

According to reports, the warning was delivered in Farsi on social media and explicitly stated:

Urgent Warning to Users and Train Passengers in the Country of Iran.

Dear Citizens, for the sake of your security, we kindly request that from this moment until 21:00 Iran time, you refrain from using and traveling by train throughout Iran.

Your presence on trains and near railway lines endangers your life.

The directive remains in effect until approximately 9:00 PM local time in Iran.

War Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters on Monday that Iran would face its heaviest round of US strikes ahead of Trump’s deadline for Iran to make a deal and reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face “complete demolition.”

He further revealed that the President had ordered “the largest volume of strikes since day one of this operation” before tomorrow’s deadline, where bombs will rain down “even more than today.”

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Latest Operation Epic Fury Data: 365 US Troops Wounded in Action, 13 Dead

The Pentagon has added Operation Epic Fury to its casualty database, as of April 3 showing 365 U.S. troops wounded in action and 13 killed.

The update marks the first time the Department of Defense has publicly included Operation Epic Fury in its official casualty tracking system, offering the clearest snapshot yet of the human toll tied to the operation. The figures provide new insight into how the military is tracking wounded and killed troops as the conflict unfolds.

The update follows weeks of rising casualty reports tied to the operation. On Friday and into Saturday, a search remained ongoing for one of two F-15E crew members taken down in Iran. U.S. officials said March 1 that three service members had been killed and five seriously wounded. By March 2, the number of those killed had risen to six.

Reporting later in March put the death toll at 13 and the number of wounded near 300, highlighting a steady increase as the operation expanded.  

Military.com sought clarification on how the Pentagon defines those killed in action, died of wounds, or non-hostile deaths. A Defense Department duty officer directed questions to U.S. Central Command.

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Saudi Prince Reveals Obama Gave Iranian Regime $150 Billion – And Iran Did Not Build a Single Street

This past week, Saudi Prince Mohammad bin Salman revealed that President Obama gave Iran $150 billion when Obama was in office, and the regime did not even build a single street with that money.

Instead, they used the money to make missiles and drones and to fortify their proxy armies in the region like Hamas, Ansar Allah, and Hezbollah. With these funds, Iran offers a safe harbor to the leaders of Al Qaeda, including one of Osama Bin Laden’s sons, who was indoctrinated into jihadism.

This was Barack Obama’s way of destabilizing the Middle East. And Obama did this all in public view. Well, most of it.

This was a direct threat against Israel and American allies in the region. Obama always brought chaos with him and left a trail of destruction. He took actions to spread this chaos and evil across the Middle East.

The Gateway Pundit readers know that we have reported on Barack Obama’s pallets of cash sent to Iran in the dead of night.

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Iran War Hikes Fertilizer Prices, Squeezing Farmers in Planting Season

Much of the economic focus during the war in Iran has been on oil and gas supplies, but the interruption of an essential byproduct, fertilizer, may soon affect farmers as planting season begins.

Fertilizer that farmers use in crop production is derived from natural gas or is processed using natural gas.

About 30 percent of the world’s fertilizer product passes through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has constricted, according to an April 1 report by the International Food Policy Research Institute.

The United Nations reports that the rate of shipping through the strait has fallen to fewer than 10 ships daily from an average of more than 100.

Consequently, over the past month, prices rose sharply for five of the eight major fertilizer types, according to DTN, an agriculture data analytics firm. Prices for urea were up by 35 percent over the past month, jumping from $677 per ton to $826 per ton in the past week alone, and anhydrous ammonia and UAN32 fertilizers were both up by 20 percent over the previous month.

“The world is now learning just how important the Strait of Hormuz is,” Caleb Jasso, a policy expert at the Institute for Energy Research, told The Epoch Times. “A great deal of trade of all kinds goes through that choke point, including a very sizable portion of the fertilizer market for the world.”

Gulf States a Critical Source

The International Food Policy Research Institute estimates that 36 percent of all global urea exports and about 29 percent of global ammonia exports are shipped through the strait, as well as 26 percent of diammonium phosphate fertilizer and 13 percent of monoammonium phosphate fertilizer.

“A large share of globally traded urea, ammonia, sulfur, and [liquefied natural gas-linked] feedstock moves through the Gulf, so the war’s effect is being felt primarily through shipping disruption, marine insurance costs, and vessel delays, rather than outright destruction of production facilities,” Peter Earle, senior economist at the American Institute for Economic Research, told The Epoch Times.

“The conflict is coming at nearly the worst possible time, the spring planting season, when Corn Belt growers are locking in nitrogen purchases for the highest-input crop in the U.S. agricultural system. If the bottleneck were to persist for several months, a likely outcome would include renewed food inflation pressure in the second half of the year, especially in protein-heavy and grain-based categories.”

Cyndie Shearing, American Farm Bureau Federation communications director, warned that “unless the delivery of critical farm inputs such as urea, ammonia, nitrogen, phosphate, and sulfur-based products is strategically prioritized, the U.S. risks a shortfall in crops.” She called the supply interruptions “a threat to [U.S.] food security—and by extension … national security.”

American farmers are struggling with shrinking margins and say that fertilizer prices were already rising before the Iran war started, with many blaming what they say is a “duopoly” in the fertilizer supply market.

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CIA Used Top-Secret Tech to Locate Downed US Aviator in Iran, Director Says

CIA Director John Ratcliffe said in a press briefing on April 6 that the agency used classified capabilities over the weekend to locate and rescue a U.S. weapons system officer who was shot down deep behind enemy lines in Iran.

Although he said he could not discuss these methods in detail, Ratcliffe explained that the CIA has “unique” capabilities, which only President Donald Trump can deploy.

“We deployed both human assets and exquisite technologies—that no other intelligence service in the world possesses—to a daunting challenge, comparable to hunting for a grain of sand in the middle of a desert,” Ratcliffe said.

Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth joined him.

On Saturday morning, the CIA achieved its primary objective in finding and confirming the soldier was still alive, Ratcliffe said.

“[Ratcliffe] did a phenomenal job that night,” Trump said before introducing Ratcliffe to give more details about the mission.

Finding the injured U.S. service member, whose identity has not yet been released, was like finding a needle in a haystack, Trump said, for which the CIA was mostly responsible.

The soldier stuck to his training after being shot down, and while bleeding profusely, Trump said, he scaled cliff faces and embedded himself in treacherous mountain terrain to avoid detection.

It was a race against the clock, Ratcliffe said.

Meanwhile, the CIA was tasked with executing a deception campaign to misdirect Iranian forces trying to track him down.

The CIA director began his comments by touting “flawless” military operations and intelligence under the Trump administration, such as Operation Midnight Hammer in June 2025 to take out key Iranian nuclear facilities.

Others included the overnight mission to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro earlier this year and strikes against drug cartels in the Pacific and Caribbean to stem the flow of illegal drugs into the United States.

Now, the same methods used in previous military operations are being used every day in Operation Epic Fury against Iran and were used in the rescue mission of the downed airman, Ratcliffe told reporters.

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Trump Flips Script on Reporter Asking if He’ll Allow Iran to Charge Tolls in the Strait of Hormuz, Says He Already Has a “Concept” to Charge Tolls – “What About Us Charging Tolls? We Won!”

President Trump on Monday said that he is actually considering controlling the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz with tolls for shipping once Iran is defeated. 

President Trump plans to launch a massive attack on Iran’s civilian infrastructure, including roads, bridges, and energy if they do not make a deal by tomorrow. During the press conference, Trump threatened that “every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o’clock tomorrow night,” and “every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding and never to be used again.”

During a press conference on Monday, Trump was asked if he would end the conflict while allowing Iran to continue charging tolls to oil tankers for safe passage through the Strait. But Trump thought the reporter was asking if he would be charging tolls for oil shipping.

“What about us charging tolls?” Trump asked after the reporter clarified he was referring to Iran.

“I’d rather do that than let them have them, right? Why shouldn’t we?” he continued, before declaring, “We’re the winner. We won!” Trump then revealed that the US already has a “concept where we’ll charge tolls.”

“Your question would have been more accurate if you said us,” Trump said.

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Why Did US Bring So Much Hardware and Troops to Rescue One Pilot From Iran?

The US effort to rescue an F-15 pilot downed in Iran could indeed have been a cover for an attempt to seize Iran’s uranium stockpile, considering the large number of aircraft, helicopters, and special forces personnel involved, Iranian and Middle Eastern affairs expert Farkhad Ibragimov tells Sputnik.

However, such a mission would be a bad idea, as five or six thousand troops simply wouldn’t be enough for a ground operation, he warns.

“In order to conduct a full-scale ground operation — not to conquer Iran’s territory but to at least affect its nuclear program — the US would need at least 500,000 troops, maybe more,” Ibragimov explains.

The US military could also have deployed so much hardware for the rescue operation to show that they are willing to go to great lengths to save their man, given how a captive US pilot would afford Iran serious leverage, not to mention that the Democratic opposition in the US and even Trump’s own supporters would raise hell if a US serviceman got captured by Iran.

Meanwhile, the US currently finds itself in a precarious situation and yet continues to vastly underestimate the situation in Iran.

“The US believes that by launching a small ground operation in select coastal regions of Iran, they could seriously destabilize the situation in the country,” Ibragimov notes. “This is rather absurd and rash thinking.”

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