live Trump Vows 'Hell' If Iran Doesn't Open Strait Of Hormuz By April 7

US forces rescued the second crew member of a downed F-15 fighter jet in Iran, concluding a high-risk combat search-and-rescue mission deep inside hostile territory.

Several media outlets, including The New York Times, reported the soldier, who was recovered in southwestern Iran early on April 5, was taken to a hospital in Kuwait for medical treatment.

There was no information immediately available on whether there were any casualties from the mission, though media reports said two transport planes that were supposed to be part of the mission failed to leave a remote base in Iran. The aircraft were destroyed to keep Iran's military from obtaining them.

"We got him," US President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social shortly after word of the rescue was made public. "He sustained injuries, but he will be just fine," he added.

The F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down by Iranian air defenses on April 3, becoming the first US aircraft lost over Iran during the five-week conflict. The first crew member was recovered within hours of ejecting from the crippled jet.

“Mission accomplished,” a US official told RFE/RL following the operation.

Read more here.

Following a request from the US government, satellite imagery company Planet Labs on April 4 said it will stop publishing high-resolution aerial pictures of the area involved in the Middle East war.

Planet said the US government had asked satellite imagery providers to implement an "indefinite withhold of imagery."

"Effective retroactively from March 9, 2026, Planet is moving to a managed access model, extending the publication delay for all new imagery within the designated AOI (area of interest), and releasing imagery on a case-by-case basis and for urgent, mission-critical requirements or in the public interest," the company said in a message to clients.

The affected area has been defined as all of Iran and allied bases in the area, as well as Gulf states and existing conflict zones.

Vantor, the other top provider of satellite imagery, has also announced major restrictions.

Planet Lab's images were generally available to its clients within hours of their satellites passing overhead.

With reporting by AFP

Iranian media reported that air strikes at the Mahshahr Petrochemical Zone in southwestern Iran killed people, with Israel asserting it had targeted a plant it said produced materials for explosives and missiles.

“After we [previously] destroyed 70 percent of its ability to create steel, which is used as the raw material for the weapons used against us, today we attacked their petrochemical factories,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video address on April 4.

“These two things are their money machine, which funds their war of terror against us and against the world,” he added.

"We will continue to hit them, as I promised,” he said.

Iran's claim of five killed in the attack could not be independently verified.

WASHINGTON -- US authorities ‌have arrested the niece and ⁠grand-niece of slain Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani, accused of supporting the "terrorist regime in Iran" while living in the United States.

"Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter are now in the custody of US Immigration ‌and Customs Enforcement," ⁠the State Department ‌said on April 4 after Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked their lawful permanent resident status, known as a "green card."

"Identified by both press reporting and her own social media commentary, Soleimani Afshar is an outspoken supporter of the totalitarian, terrorist regime in Iran."

"While living in the United States, she promoted Iranian regime propaganda, celebrated attacks against American soldiers and military facilities in the Middle East," the statement added.

The statement did not specify what the next steps would be, although persons who have their green cards revoked are generally deported unless found to have broken specific US laws.

The State Department said Afshar’s husband has also been barred from entering the United States.

Iranian media on quoted two daughters of Qassem Soleimani a denying that two Iranian women detained in the United States were their relatives.

Qassem Soleimani was a top Iranian general who was targeted and killed in a US air strike in Iraq in 2020 during US President Donald Trump's first term.

Soleimani wase commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Crops' Quds Force, an elite unit usually focused on external operations.

Finance ministers from Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Austria have jointly urged the European Commission to introduce a bloc‑wide windfall tax on energy companies’ profits, citing soaring fuel costs linked to the ongoing war in the Middle East, Reuters reported.

The ministers said such a tax could help ease financial pressure on households and demonstrate European solidarity.

In a letter sent on April 3 to EU Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra, the group said the current spike in energy prices reflects “market distortions” caused by the Middle East conflict and argued that firms benefiting from the crisis should contribute to relief measures.

They cited emergency tax measures used in 2022 during Europe’s energy crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a precedent.

The letter comes amid a surge in European fuel costs. Gas prices have risen more than 70 percent since late February, and average EU petrol and diesel retail prices have climbed noticeably, with gasoline up around 14 percent and diesel about 30 percent in the weeks following the conflict, Marketscreener reported.

As of April 4, Brent crude oil prices were trading near $100.50 per barrel, retreating from a high of nearly $120 per barrel reached in late March.

The ministers said the proposed windfall tax would help distribute the financial burden more fairly among consumers affected by the conflict and called on the European Commission to act swiftly to implement a legal framework.

US President Donald Trump on April 4 told the Iranian regime that “time is running out” and that it must make a deal or open the crucial Strait of Hormuz to shipping or face “hell,” renewing an earlier threat in which he vowed to send Iran “back to the stone ages.”

“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!,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.

The remarks came even as US forces searched for a missing crew member after an F-15E jet fighter was shot down a day earlier over Iran. One crew member has been rescued, US officials said.

Trump has previously set deadlines for Iran to make a deal or to open the Strait of Hormuz, through which some 20 percent of global oil and natural gas supplies pass. Tehran has effectively blocked the passage, leading to a worldwide energy crisis.

On March 30, Trump said that "if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached" US forces will react " by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!)”

Trump on March 21 originally gave Tehran a 48-hour deadline, but then extended it, saying he wanted to give talks a chance to succeed.

Iran has rejected a 15-point US plan presented to it through Pakistani mediators but on April 4 left open the possibility of further negotiations.

Read more here.

Russia’s state-owned nuclear agency, Rosatom, evacuated 198 staff members from Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant on April 4, continuing a withdrawal that began after the conflict escalated in the region in late February, according to Russian news agencies.

The Bushehr plant, Iran’s only operational nuclear facility, was built with Russian assistance and is jointly run by Iranian and Russian personnel.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on April 4 that Iran had informed it of a projectile striking close to the Bushehr site, killing a guard. The nuclear watchdog said that the main parts of the plant were unaffected and radiation levels remained normal.

The reported strike has not been independently confirmed, and neither the US nor Israeli militaries have confirmed any involvement in an attack on the facility.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said in a post on X: “[Nuclear power plant] sites or nearby areas must never be attacked… maximum military restraint is essential to avoid the risk of a nuclear accident.”

Rosatom chief Aleksei Likhachev said the situation was developing according to a worst-case scenario and confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin had been informed. It was unclear if the evacuation of personnel was planned or connected to the reported strike close to Bushehr.

Iran has claimed that a new, advanced air defense system was used to shoot down the US F-15E Strike Eagle over Iran.

During a press briefing on April 3, Ebrahim Zolfaghari, a spokesperson at Iran's Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters (the joint operational command headquarters of the Iranian military), said the downing of the jet with a “new, advanced defense system” showed that US President Donald Trump’s claims that Iranian air defenses had been destroyed were incorrect.

“We will certainly achieve full control over our country’s skies,” Zolfaghari added.

Military analysts have described Iran's air defense as a layered network that integrates domestically produced systems, including the long-range Bavar-373 and the more mobile, medium-range Khordad-15, along with mobile “hit-to-kill” technologies capable of firing multiple missiles simultaneously.

“Hit-to-kill” technology is where an interceptor destroys its target through a high-speed physical collision rather than an explosive warhead. Exactly how Iran utilizes “Hit-to-kill” is unclear.

On April 4, Iran continued attacks on Western-operated energy facilities in Iraq.

Two drones struck the BP-operated North Rumaila oil field in southern Iraq, wounding three Iraqi workers. Earlier the same day, another drone hit storage facilities near Iraq's southeastern port of Basra, which is used by foreign oil companies. Reports also indicate that two drones hit the Majnoon oil field in southern Iraq, following the earlier attacks.

The Shalamcheh border crossing between Iraq and Iran was officially closed after an air strike on the Iranian side killed an Iraqi citizen.

On April 4, news agencies reported that US-Israeli strikes in Iran targeted multiple sites, including a nuclear plant, a petrochemical hub, a trade terminal, and a cement factory.

On April 3, Shahid Beheshti University in northern Tehran was hit by an air strike, reportedly damaging parts of the campus. The European Union and other countries have sanctioned the university for what they have said is research relevant to the development of nuclear weapons.

According to AFP, Iranian Science Minister Hossein Simai Sarraf told reporters during a visit to the university that over 30 universities across Iran have been attacked by US and Israeli forces since late February.

US and Israeli forces have not confirmed any attack on the Shahid Beheshti University and Sarraf's claims can not be independently verified.

Reuters and Iran's Tasnim news agency, which is close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, reported on April 4 that Iran has allowed vessels carrying essential goods through the Strait of Hormuz, including humanitarian aid and basic supplies, to reach its ports, provided they coordinate with local authorities.

The strait has been blocked by Iran since February 28.

Since April 3, ships from Oman, Pakistan, Turkey, India, France, and Japan have passed through the strait, according to MarineTraffic and LSEG. Among them, the Sohar LNG, which is Panama-flagged and co-owned by Japan's Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, became the first Japan-linked vessel and liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier to transit through the strait since the conflict began. Other successful passages included an Indian liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tanker and a French container ship.

Despite this, Japan's Transport Ministry has said that about 45 Japanese-operated ships remain stranded in the region, primarily in the Persian Gulf. Based on vessel-tracking data from MarineTraffic and LSEG, overall traffic is estimated at around 5–12 percent of prewar levels.

As of April, reports from maritime intelligence firms, news agencies, and government ministries show 2,190 vessels stranded in the region, including 400 oil tankers.

US intelligence sources, cited by Reuters on April 3, warn that Iran is unlikely to fully reopen the strait soon, using control of the waterway as leverage over the United States. US President Donald Trump has suggested US forces could act to reopen the passage if necessary.

The UN Security Council plans to vote next week on a Bahraini resolution to protect shipping. China and Russia have opposed authorizing force, while the draft, backed by the Gulf states and Washington, would allow defensive measures for at least six months.