President Donald Trump held a press conference a day after the military rescued an Air Force pilot in Iran and issued a warning that Iran has until Tuesday to open the Strait of Hormuz.
“As Commander-in-Chief, I never forget the extraordinary risk taken by the warriors that we send into battle — and the genius,” said Trump.
Trump described the rescue mission of the Weapons Systems Operator:
“He was injured quite badly and stranded in an area teeming with terrorists from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — rough group — as well as besieged military militia and local authorities. Many — on top of everything else — They told the communities actually with inside of Iran, the people of Iran, they were given a tremendous incentive to find this pilot. Despite the peril, the officer followed his training and climbed into the treacherous mountain terrain and started climbing toward a higher altitude, something they were trained to do in order to evade capture. They want to always go as far away from the site of the shootdown. You want to go as far away because they all head right to that site. You want to be as far away as you can. And he was injured and he was an amazing, amazing thing.”“He scaled cliff faces, bleeding rather profusely, treated his own wounds and contacted American forces to transmit his location. They have a very sophisticated beeper type apparatus that is on them at all times. And when they when they go out on these missions, they make sure they have lots of battery space and they’re in good shape. And this one worked really well, amazingly saved his life.”“We immediately mobilized a massive operation to retrieve him from the mountain holdout, and he kept going higher and higher. The mountain kept getting rougher and rougher and really very, very hard to find. The second rescue mission involved 155 aircraft, including four bombers, 64 fighters, 48 refueling tankers, 13 rescue aircraft and more. We were bringing them all over, and a lot of it was subterfuge. We wanted to have them think he was in a different location because they had a vast military force out there. Thousands, thousands of people were looking, so we wanted them to look in different areas, so we were scattered all over like we were right on top of them they thought, and they were very confused. They said, well, wait a minute, they’ve got groups here, they’ve got groups there. It’s amazing thing.”
Trump also went off on a person who leaked the rescue mission to the media because Iran did not know the military had started looking for them.
Trump is angry: “They didn’t know there was somebody missing until this leaker gave the information. Whoever it was, we think we’ll be able to find out, because we’re gonna go to the media company that released it and we’re gonna say, ‘National security, Give it up or go to jail.'”
Vijeta Uniyal detailed the rescue of an Air Force pilot in Iran on Sunday.
“WE GOT HIM! My fellow Americans, over the past several hours, the United States Military pulled off one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in U.S. History, for one of our incredible Crew Office Members, who also happens to be a highly respected Colonel, and who I am thrilled to let you know is SAFE and SOUND!” Trump posted on Truth Social.
It also sounds like Trump will stand firm on his threat regarding the Strait of Hormuz:
We are dealing with them. Essentially, they have until eight o’clock tomorrow night, Eastern Time, but we are dealing with them. I think it’s going well. Mr. [US special envoy to the Middle East Steve] Witkoff is here, and JD [Vance] is involved in the dealing. Mr. Witkoff is sitting right here, and I think it’s going fine, but we’ll have to see. You have to understand, we’ve been dealing with these people for 47 years. I’m standing here with a much more powerful Iran as of a month ago. Not anymore. Right now, they are decapitated, but I’m standing here a month ago with a much more powerful Iran than it was at any point during 47 years. This should have been handled by seven presidents, a lot of presidents, and those presidents are saying now, every one of them to their friends, we should have done this a long time ago. So it’s not something I like doing. It’s very dangerous, and we’re getting them at the height of of their strength. If I didn’t terminate the Barack Hussein Obama Iran nuclear deal, they would have had a, don’t forget, that was a path to a nuclear weapon. Remember this, he chose Iran over Israel, pure and simple.
Trump also said:
This is a critical period. They have a period of well, till tomorrow at eight o’clock. I gave them an extension. They asked for an extension of seven days, right? I said, “Steve, give them 10 days.” 10 days is up, actually today. So I gave them 11 I guess indirectly, I thought it was inappropriate. The day after Easter, I want to be a nice person.They have till tomorrow. Now we’ll see what happens. I can tell you they’re negotiating, we think, in good faith, we’re going to find out. We’re getting the help of some incredible countries that want this to be ended because it affects them also. A lot of people are affected by this, but we’re giving them, we’re giving them till tomorrow, eight o’clock Eastern time, and after that, they’re going to have no bridges. They’re going to have no power plants.Stone ages.
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