U.S. President Donald Trump has issued another warning to Iran, demanding that it reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours. The renewed ultimatum came shortly after two American F-15E fighter jets were shot down, reaffirming a deadline he had previously set. Iran, however, has pushed back, indirectly threatening to blockade the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea in addition to the Strait of Hormuz. U.S. intelligence agencies have reportedly assessed that Iran is unlikely to lift the Hormuz blockade, making a dramatic resolution appear difficult.
Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday that "Tuesday will be the day for power plants and bridges," adding, "Open the damn strait, you bastards, or you will live in hell." A day earlier, he had written, "The 10 days I gave Iran to negotiate or open the Strait of Hormuz are running out. In 48 hours, hell will unfold for them." Trump had initially set a deadline of March 27 and threatened to bomb Iran's power plants, but later extended the deadline by 10 days to 8 p.m. on April 6 (9 a.m. April 7, Korea time).
However, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran's speaker of parliament — whom Trump had identified as his negotiating counterpart — posted on X (formerly Twitter) the same day: "What share of global oil, LNG, wheat, rice and fertilizer shipments passes through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait? Which countries and companies have the highest volume of cargo transiting the strait?"
The post is interpreted as an indirect signal that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which has effectively blockaded the Strait of Hormuz — through which 25% of the world's oil shipments pass — could also move to blockade the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which handles 10%. Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels have already warned they could blockade the Bab el-Mandeb if Gulf states join the conflict on the side of the United States and Israel.
Threats between the U.S. and Iran are increasingly taking the shape of a head-on confrontation, with escalating levels of attack. The Israeli military announced it had struck 120 Iranian military facilities, including Hezbollah weapons storage sites, over a 24-hour period. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he is preparing to strike Iranian energy facilities next week and is awaiting U.S. approval. Earlier, an attack on an Iranian petrochemical complex was confirmed to have killed five people.
The United States is positioning the bulk of its advanced JASSM-ER stealth cruise missile inventory in the Middle East in preparation for the next phase of airstrikes. Bloomberg reported that "the U.S. military plans to deploy nearly its entire global stockpile of JASSM-ER missiles."
Iran is also expanding its counterattacks. Colonel Ebrahim Zolfaghari, Iran's military spokesperson, said the country is deploying a newly domestically produced air defense system designed to intercept U.S. aircraft. Iran previously used drones to strike U.S. military facilities in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Houthi rebels have also attacked targets inside Israel and struck Iraqi oil fields, damaging storage facilities.
Meanwhile, Ali Abdollahi, Iran's central commander of the Nuclear Weapons Control Agency, fired back at Trump, saying, "He is desperate, enraged, and threatening our facilities with mentally unstable behavior." He added, "The gates of hell will open for you."