Trump issues expletive-laden threat to Iran - gives Tuesday deadline
US President says Iran will be 'living in hell' if it does not meet his demands
Iranians will be "living in hell" if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said on Sunday in an expletive social media post.
“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran,” the US president says in a Truth Social post.
He added, “There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F*ckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”
The post follows a previous one on Saturday in which Trump said "all hell" would rain down on the country if it did not "make a deal or open up the Hormuz Strait" within 48 hours.
Iran's central military command rejected that ultimatum, with General Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi saying Trump's threat was a "helpless, nervous, unbalanced and stupid action".
Echoing Trump's language, he warned that "the gates of hell will open for you".
US-Israeli strikes hit an airport in southwestern Iran on Sunday, state media reported.
"The Shahid (Qasem) Soleimani international airport was hit in an airstrike carried out by US and Zionist forces," the official IRNA news agency said, citing the deputy governor of Khuzestan province, Valiollah Hayati.
In Iraq, pro-Iran armed groups carried out two attacks on US diplomatic sites overnight, the US embassy in Baghdad said Sunday.
"Iraqi terrorist militias affiliated with Iran conducted two more egregious attacks against U.S. diplomatic facilities in Iraq overnight in an attempt to kill American diplomats," an embassy spokesperson said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Kuwait and Israel said their air defences were responding to the latest attacks from Iran.
The United Arab Emirates also said its air defences were responding to missile attacks Tehran said were targeting the country's aluminium industries, while Bahrain officials reported a fire at a refinery "as a result of Iranian aggression".
'Choose peace': Pope
The post came hours after Pope Leo XIV on Sunday urged "those who have the power to unleash wars" to "choose peace". It was his first Easter blessing as pontiff with the Middle East conflict raging.
"We are growing accustomed to violence, resigning ourselves to it, and becoming indifferent. Indifferent to the deaths of thousands of people," the pope told a crowd in St Peter's Square.
The leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics, who was elected in May 2025, also called for a prayer vigil at the Vatican on April 11.