President Donald Trump reiterated his warning to Iran that the country has until Monday to strike a deal before “all Hell will reign down.”
He has moved the deadline for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz before, first setting a 48-hour deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz the weekend of March 21. However, that deadline ultimately turned into a 10-day timeline ending on Monday, April 6, at 8:00 p.m., as Trump pointed to peace talk progress.
“Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT. Time is running out – 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them. Glory be to GOD!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“Talks are ongoing and, despite erroneous statements to the contrary by the Fake News Media, and others, they are going very well,” Trump said on March 26.
The White House promised to pause all airstrikes on Iranian nuclear power plant infrastructure until the Monday deadline at 8:00 PM, giving the regime time to strike a deal to end the war or reopen the vital oil shipping passageway located between Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman. Trump said it was the Iranians who requested more time from Trump’s initial deadline during the closed-door peace talks.
“They asked for seven, and I gave them 10. You got 10 days, and they were very thankful about that,” Trump told Fox News last week.
TRUMP SHIFTS IRAN TIMELINE AGAIN AS CRITICS QUESTION ENDGAME
Trump’s Saturday reminder that the April 6 deadline for peace is impending comes just one day after the Iranians shot down a U.S. F-15 fighter jet over Iran’s airspace. One pilot was rescued by the U.S. military, while a search mission remains ongoing for the second.
If the U.S. threat to resume strikes on Iranian energy plants can bring the Iranians to make a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, it would mark a major diplomatic development in the war. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’s chokehold on the strait has spooked oil markets throughout the war, leading to a rise in oil prices and gas prices in the U.S. since Operation Epic Fury began on Feb. 28.
