Iran rejects ceasefire as Trump says entire country can be 'taken out'
by Nandita Bose and Steve Holland · Japan TodayDUBAI/WASHINGTON — Iran said on Monday it wanted a lasting end to the war with the U.S. and Israel, and pushed back against pressure to reopen the Strait of Hormuz while U.S. President Donald Trump warned the country could be "taken out" if it did not meet his Tuesday night deadline to reach a deal.
Responding to a U.S. proposal through mediator Pakistan, Tehran rejected a ceasefire and said a permanent end to the war was necessary, the official IRNA news agency reported.
The Iranian response consisted of 10 clauses, including an end to conflicts in the region, a protocol for safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, lifting of sanctions and reconstruction, the agency added.
Trump, who has threatened to rain "hell" on Tehran if it did not make a deal by 8 p.m. EDT Tuesday to open the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for global energy supplies, rejected the Iranian response and said his deadline was final.
At a news conference, Trump said Iran could be "taken out" in one night "and that night might be tomorrow night," referring to Tuesday. He vowed to destroy Iranian power plants and bridges, brushing off concerns that such actions would be a war crime or alienate Iran's 93 million people.
Without an agreement with Tehran, Trump said, "Every bridge in Iran will be decimated" by midnight EDT on Wednesday and "every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding, and never to be used again."
Critics have said Trump would be committing war crimes if the U.S. attacks civilian power plants, a point Trump dismissed on Monday.
"I'm not worried about it. You know what's a war crime? Having a nuclear weapon," Trump said earlier on Monday during an Easter egg event for children on the White House South Lawn.
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth told the press conference that the heaviest strikes since the start of the Iran conflict would take place on Monday and warned that Tuesday would have even more.
After the U.S. and Israel attacked on February 28, Iran effectively closed Hormuz, a conduit for about a fifth of the world's oil and natural gas supply. The waterway’s stranglehold on the global economy has proved a powerful bargaining chip, and Tehran is reluctant to relinquish it too easily.
The Pakistani-brokered framework for ending the war proposed an immediate ceasefire, followed by talks on a broader peace settlement to be concluded within 15 to 20 days, a source aware of the proposals said.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Tehran's demands "should not be interpreted as a sign of compromise, but rather as a reflection of its confidence in defending its positions." He added that earlier U.S. demands, such as a 15-point plan, were rejected as "excessive".
At the news conference, Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth praised the successful weekend retrieval from Iran of a U.S. airman whose jet was shot down on Friday.
Hegseth, who has faced scrutiny for outspokenly blending his evangelical religious faith with military operations, described the rescue in explicitly Christian terms, comparing it to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. "Shot down on a Friday, Good Friday, hidden in a cave, a crevice, all of Saturday and rescued on Sunday, flown out of Iran as the sun was rising on Easter Sunday, a pilot reborn. All home and accounted for a nation rejoicing. God is good," Hegseth said.
The rescue mission came amid rising concern about the nearly six-week-long war's effect on the global economy, including a sharp rise in fuel prices. The conflict has also hit Trump's approval ratings and intensified anxiety among Republicans about November's midterm elections.
Trump cast the recovery of a downed American airman as a symbol of U.S. strength and resolve. He described in detail the weekend operation to save the airman, who hid in mountainous Iranian terrain and eluded capture by Iranian forces.
Trump said the airman, identified only as "Dude 44 Bravo," kept climbing higher in order to improve his chances for recovery. He said the airman was seen moving via an unidentified U.S. camera link. "It was like finding a needle in a haystack," Trump said.
Hundreds of American forces were involved in the search-and-recovery mission and to prevent the Iranians from finding him first, he said.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who joined Trump at the event, said the agency had engaged in a "deception campaign" to convince the Iranians the airman was somewhere else.
Ratcliffe said that on Saturday morning the CIA got confirmation that "one of America's best and bravest was alive and concealed in a mountain crevice, still invisible to the enemy, but not to the CIA."
The pilot, shot down on Friday, was recovered on Sunday morning.
"In a breathtaking show of skill and precision, lethality and force, America's military descended on the area, the real area, engaged the enemy, rescued the stranded officer, destroyed all threats and exited Iranian territory while taking no casualties of any kind," Trump said.
Hegseth said the lost airman used an emergency transponder to show where he was and his first message was: "God is good."
General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the recovered airman had been the "back seater" on the downed aircraft.
"In this case, the back seater's absolute commitment to surviving made much of our efforts possible," Caine said.
VOWS TO DESTROY INFRASTRUCTURE
Fresh aerial strikes were reported across the region on Monday. Hegseth said Monday would have the most strikes since the start of the war, and Tuesday would see even more.
Iranian state media said the Revolutionary Guards' intelligence chief, Majid Khademi, had died. Israel claimed responsibility for his death.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened to destroy Iran’s infrastructure and hunt down its leaders "one by one." The Israeli military also said it had targeted Iran's air force through a series of strikes on the Bahram, Mehrabad, and Azmayesh airports.
Iran said two of its petrochemical complexes were attacked.
Emergency and firefighting teams brought a blaze under control at the South Pars complex in Asaluyeh, Iran's National Petrochemical Company said. No casualties were reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the strike on the petrochemical facility in southern Iran was part of dismantling Iran's Revolutionary Guards "money machine".
"Iran is no longer the same Iran, and Israel is no longer the same Israel. Israel is stronger than ever, and the terrorist regime in Iran is weaker than ever," Netanyahu said in a statement.
Experts have said strikes on civilian infrastructure such as power plants and bridges would constitute war crimes. Trump said Iranians are "willing to suffer that in order to have freedom," saying that the U.S. has intercepted messages asking for bombings. "They're saying, 'Please come back,'" he said.
FIGHTING BACK
Iranian weekend strikes on petrochemical facilities and an Israeli-linked vessel in Kuwait, Bahrain and the UAE underscored the country's ability to fight back despite Trump's repeated claims to have knocked out its missile and drone capabilities.
Israel saw a heavy day of rocket volleys on Monday, with the sounds of sirens and missile interception booms ringing out across the country throughout the day.
Israel's military told Reuters there had been 20 missile launches from Lebanon and five from Iran during the day. Several attacks resulted in impacts. A missile hit Haifa overnight, killing four. This raised the war's death toll in Israel to 23, according to Israel's ambulance service.
Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis said on Monday that they also carried out missile and drone attacks against Israel.
Thousands of people have been killed across the Middle East in the Iran war, including 3,546 in Iran, U.S.-based rights group HRANA said, and nearly 1,500 in Lebanon.
Israel has invaded southern Lebanon and struck Beirut in a fight against Iran-backed Hezbollah militants that has become the war's most violent spillover.
Thirteen U.S. service members have died.
© Thomson Reuters 2026.