Trump gives Iran 48 hours to open Strait of Hormuz as search continues for missing US pilot
Tel Aviv (AP): The American military searched for a second day for a pilot shot down over a remote area in Iran, while US President Donald Trump on Saturday again threatened Tehran over his Monday deadline to open the Strait of Hormuz: “Time is running out."
The US warplane, identified by Iran as a F-15E Strike Eagle, was one of two attacked on Friday. Iran has promised a reward for whoever turns in the “enemy pilot.” Iran's joint military command on Saturday said that it also struck two US Black Hawk helicopters on Friday, but The Associated Press couldn't independently verify that.
The war, now in its sixth week, began with joint US-Israel strikes on Feb 28 and has killed thousands, shaken global markets, cut off key shipping routes and spiked fuel prices. It shows no signs of slowing as Iran responds with attacks across the region.
“We will continue to crush them,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday. Israel's military confirmed that it struck a petrochemical complex in Mahshahr that Netanyahu said helps to fund the war, along with air defense systems and ballistic missile production sites.
Trump said in a national address on Wednesday that the US has “beaten and completely decimated Iran.” But on Saturday, an apparent Iranian drone damaged the headquarters of US technology company Oracle in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Both sides have threatened, and hit, civilian targets and infrastructure, bringing warnings of possible war crimes.
The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said that an airstrike hit near its Bushehr nuclear facility, killing a security guard and damaging a support building. The head of Russia's state nuclear corporation, Rosatom, said that 198 workers were being evacuated. It was the fourth time the facility was targeted.
Hopes for talks
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Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Tahir Andrabi, told the AP that his government's efforts to broker a ceasefire are “right on track.” Last week, Pakistan said that it would soon host talks between the U.S. and Iran.
Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said that they “have never refused to go to Islamabad.”
Mediators from Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt are working to bring the U.S. and Iran to the negotiating table, according to two regional officials. They said that they were working on bridging the gap between the two sides' demands to stop the war and reopen the crucial Strait of Hormuz.
The proposed compromise includes a cessation of hostilities to allow a diplomatic settlement, according to a regional official involved in the efforts and a Gulf diplomat briefed on the matter. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door diplomacy.
But Trump reminded Iran of his deadline in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social,
“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,” he said.
Missing American pilot
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The search for the US pilot focused on a mountainous region in Iran's southwestern province of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad. An anchor on a channel affiliated with Iranian state television urged residents to hand over any “enemy pilot” to police.
Neither the White House nor the Pentagon released information, but in an email from the Pentagon, obtained by the AP, the military said that it received notification of “an aircraft being shot down” in the Middle East.
A US crew member was rescued. The Pentagon notified the US House Armed Services Committee that the status of a second service member wasn't known.
Trump told NBC News that what happened wouldn't affect negotiations with Iran.
A second US Air Force combat aircraft went down in the Middle East on Friday, according to a US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military situation. It wasn't clear if the aircraft crashed or was shot down, or whether Iran was involved.
Iranian state media said a US A-10 attack aircraft crashed in the Persian Gulf after being struck by Iran's defence forces.
Oracle's offices in Dubai damaged
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The Dubai headquarters of Oracle was hit after Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened the firm. Footage verified by the AP outside the UAE showed a large hole in the building's southwestern corner.
The sheikhdom's Dubai Media Office, which speaks for its government, noted a “minor incident caused by debris from an aerial interception that fell on the facade," saying there were no injuries. Oracle Corp., based in Austin, Texas, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Guard has accused some large US tech companies of being involved in “terrorist espionage” operations against the Islamic Republic and called them legitimate targets. Amazon Web Services facilities in the UAE and Bahrain were hit in earlier drone strikes.
Bab-el-Mandeb Strait
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Iran's parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, issued a veiled threat late Friday to disrupt traffic through a second strategic waterway in the region, the Bab-el-Mandeb.
The strait, 32 kilometres (20 miles) wide, links the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. More than a tenth of seaborne global oil and a quarter of container ships pass through it.
“Which countries and companies account for the highest transit volumes through the strait?” Qalibaf wrote.
More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began.
In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel and 13 US service members have been killed. In Lebanon, more than 1,400 people have been killed and there have been more than 1 million displaced people. Ten Israeli soldiers have died there.
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BJP will not project CM face in Bengal, will seek votes in Modi's name: Samik
Kolkata (PTI): Amid speculations on the BJP's chief ministerial face in the West Bengal assembly polls, state BJP president Samik Bhattacharya said the party had not taken any decision on the matter and would instead seek votes in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his "development agenda".
Bhattacharya said the BJP did not distinguish between "organic" and "inorganic" leaders, and that "whoever the people identify as fighters against the TMC's misrule can be the party's face after it wins the polls".
Pitching the assembly polls as the BJP's direct battle against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the TMC's "appeasement politics", Bhattacharya asserted that the party would not project any CM face, and would instead seek votes in the name of Modi and his "development agenda", and also pursue a policy of "detect, detain and deport" against infiltrators if voted to power.
In an interview with PTI, Bhattacharya declined to give a direct reply on whether the BJP's decision to field Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari from both Nandigram and Bhabanipur amounted to projecting him as the party's chief ministerial candidate.
"The BJP does not project anyone as the chief ministerial candidate. In Delhi and Haryana, who did the BJP project as the face? We did not. Yet we won. The same happened in Odisha. Whom did we project as the face? We did not fight those elections with any one face," he said.
Pressed on whether Adhikari's candidature from Mamata Banerjee's pocket borough Bhabanipur made him, in effect, the BJP's face in the election, Bhattacharya said the decision on leadership would rest entirely with the party's parliamentary board and central leadership.
"If, in the next few days, they decide to select someone and fight under that person, then that will be their decision. But at this moment, there is no such decision and I do not think there will be," he said.
The BJP, he said, would instead seek votes in the name of Modi.
"We contest elections by putting forward 'vikas purush' Prime Minister Narendra Modi -- the man of development -- whom people from Kashmir to Kanyakumari trust, and by seeking votes on the basis of faith in his vision," Bhattacharya said.
He, however, left a small window open, saying the top leadership remained free to take a different call later.
The BJP leader said his party would secure a "comfortable majority" in the election but refused to specify numbers or say whether it would cross the two-thirds mark.
Bhattacharya made it clear that the decision to field Adhikari in Bhabanipur was intended to throw a direct challenge at Banerjee on her home turf.
"Anyone can understand that. It is a direct challenge," he said.
Recalling the fierce political battle between Banerjee and Adhikari in Nandigram in 2021, Bhattacharya said the BJP wanted to test the TMC's claim that Banerjee lost there only because of "load-shedding".
"The leader of the opposition was suspended from the assembly for a total of 11 months in the last five years. His family was attacked. His victory was called a 'load-shedding victory'. Even then we said: if you think we won in Nandigram because of load-shedding, then show your strength by taking a lead in that segment in the Lok Sabha elections. They could not take the lead there," he said.
Setting out the BJP's priorities if it came to power, Bhattacharya said the first task would be to establish the rule of law.
"First, establish the rule of law in the state. Second, ensure that there is no post-poll violence, because we believe that after the TMC loses power, its workers will start killing each other. We do not want that. Third, create an atmosphere suitable for investment," he said.
On infiltration, which he described as the BJP's "core issue", Bhattacharya said the party's policy would be simple: "Detect, detain, deport infiltrators from West Bengal".
He repeatedly cast this month's election not merely as a contest between the BJP and the ruling TMC, but as a decisive civilisation battle not only for the "existence of Bengali Hindus but also for nationalist, rational Muslims".
Bhattacharya also sought to rebut allegations that the BJP was trying to impose a 'Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan' and vegetarian culture on West Bengal.
"Bengalis cannot live without fish. The party of Syama Prasad Mookerjee don't need to prove whether we are Bengalis or not," he said.
Striking a combative note over the alleged assault on judicial officers engaged in SIR in Malda, Bhattacharya said he still had faith in the EC to ensure free and fair polls in the state.
"It is a commitment from them (EC) that they are going to hold a free and fair, and bloodless election. Right now, a constitutional authority is being challenged in West Bengal. I think the custodians of the Constitution should intervene immediately," he said.
Rejecting Banerjee's allegation that the BJP wanted to impose President's Rule in the state, Bhattacharya said the party could have done so years ago had it wished so.
"Had the BJP wanted to impose President's Rule, this government could have been removed seven years earlier itself. But we do not support that in principle. Mamata Banerjee will be defeated by the people's vote," he said.
To Muslims, who comprise nearly 30 per cent of the electorate and had hardly voted for the saffron camp in the last few polls, Bhattacharya said, the BJP's message was to "come into the mainstream of national life", educate children and reject appeasement politics.
