No sign of Tehran’s willingness to bow to Trump demands

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Tehran had 48 hours left to cut a deal or face "all Hell", as US and Iranian forces scrambled to find a downed American airman.
Trump's latest threat came after a strike near an Iranian nuclear power plant prompted evacuations, and as Tehran announced fresh attacks in the region, with the Revolutionary Guards saying they hit a commercial ship in Bahrain allegedly linked to Israel. 
"Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT," Trump wrote on Truth Social, referring to an ultimatum issued on 26 March.
"Time is running out -- 48 hours before all Hell will reign (sic) down on them."
Iranian forces were hunting for a missing US pilot on Saturday from one of two warplanes downed over Iran and the Gulf, raising the stakes for Washington as the war entered its sixth week with scant prospect of peace talks in sight.
The incidents show the risks still facing US and Israeli aircraft over Iran, despite assertions by Trump and his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that US forces had total control of the skies.
The prospect of a US service member alive and on the run in Iran comes days after Trump threatened to bomb Iran "back to the Stone Ages" in a conflict that has low public support among Americans and threatens lasting damage to the global economy.
Iran attacked an Israel-affiliated vessel with a drone in the Strait of Hormuz, setting the ship on fire, Iran's state media said on Saturday, citing the commander of the Revolutionary Guards navy.
There was no immediate comment from Israel. 
With Iran's leadership defiant since the start of the war, its foreign minister in principle left the door open for holding peace talks with the US via mediation from Pakistan, but gave no sign of Tehran's willingness to bow to Trump's demands.
"We are deeply grateful to Pakistan for its efforts and have never refused to go to Islamabad. What we care about are the terms of a conclusive and lasting END to the illegal war that is imposed on us," Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on X.
Iranian fire brought down a two-seat US F-15E jet, officials in both countries said, while two US officials said the pilot ejected from an A-10 Warthog fighter aircraft that crashed in Kuwait after being hit by Iranian fire.
Two Black Hawk helicopters engaged in the search for the missing pilot were hit by Iranian fire but made it out of Iranian airspace, the two US officials told Reuters. 
The scale of injuries to the crew was unclear.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said it was combing a southwestern area near where the pilot’s plane came down, while the regional governor promised a commendation for anyone who captured or killed “forces of the hostile enemy.”
Iranians pummeled by American air power since the US and Israel began their attacks on 28 February celebrated the plane downings. Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said on X the war had been “downgraded from regime change” to a hunt for pilots.
Trump has been in the White House receiving updates on the rescue effort, a senior administration official told Reuters.
Increasingly frustrated with the political fallout from the war, Trump is considering a broader cabinet shake-up in the wake of Attorney General Pam Bondi’s removal this week, people familiar with the discussions said.
Any potential reshuffling could serve as a reset for the White House as it confronts rising gas prices, falling ratings and worries for Republicans heading into November’s midterm elections.
The conflict has killed 13 US military service members, with more than 300 wounded, the US Central Command says.
As hostilities continued on Saturday, Iranian state media reported air strikes at a petrochemical zone in southwestern Iran, with five people reported injured so far.
A projectile also hit an auxiliary building near the perimeter of Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant, the Tasnim news agency said, killing one person. The operations of the plant were unaffected.
“Remember the Western outrage about hostilities near Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine? Israel-US have bombed our Bushehr plant four times now. Radioactive fallout will end life in GCC capitals, not Tehran,” Araqchi said on X, referring to Arab states of the Gulf.
Iranian media also reported air strikes on warehouses storing bottled water in western Iran.
The Israeli military meanwhile said it had carried out “a wave of strikes” on Tehran.
The war has killed thousands and sparked an energy crisis since the initial strikes that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran has virtually shut the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas, but on Saturday the Tasnim news agency reported Iran had authorised the passage of vessels carrying essential goods to its ports.
Trump was considering a broader cabinet shake-up in the wake of Attorney General Pam Bondi’s removal this week, as he grows increasingly frustrated with the political fallout from the war with Iran, five people familiar with internal White House discussions said.
Any potential reshuffling could serve as a reset for the White House as it confronts a politically challenging stretch: The five-week-old war has driven up gas prices, dragged down Trump’s approval ratings and intensified anxiety about the consequences for Republicans heading into November’s midterm elections.

Three White House officials and two other sources with knowledge of administration dynamics spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel matters.
The sources did not consistently describe any single cabinet member as certain to lose their job in the near term. But multiple officials are in some degree of danger, they said.
Several of the sources said Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s director of national intelligence, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick are among those potentially on the chopping block, after Trump ousted Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in recent weeks.
US-Israeli strikes have hit more than 30 universities across Iran since the war broke out in late February, Iran’s science minister said on Saturday.
“To date, more than 30 universities have been directly targeted,” Hossein Simai Sarraf told reporters during a visit to the Shahid Beheshti University in northern Tehran, which was struck on Friday. 
On Saturday, authorities in Dubai said no injuries were reported after debris from aerial interceptions hit the facades of two buildings in the emirate, including that of US tech company Oracle in Dubai Internet City.

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Israel has been waging a parallel campaign against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon after the militant group fired at Israel in support of Iran. Early on Saturday, Israel’s military said it was striking the militants’ infrastructure sites in Beirut.
Oil markets were closed after benchmark US crude prices jumped 11% on Thursday after Trump offered no clear sign of an imminent end to the war in a speech.