WASHINGTON/CAIRO — President Donald J. Trump threatened to rain “hell” on Tehran if it did not make a deal and reopen the Strait of Hormuz by his Tuesday deadline, as he praised US special forces who rescued an airman in a high-risk mission deep inside Iran.

Fresh aerial strikes were reported across the region on Monday, more than five weeks since the US and Israel began pounding Iran in a war that has killed thousands and damaged economies by boosting oil prices.

Iran responded to the attacks by effectively closing the Hormuz waterway, a conduit for about a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas supply, and attacking Israel, US military bases and energy infrastructure around the Gulf.

Explosions shook Tehran on Monday and a US-Israeli strike on a residential building south of the capital killed at least 13, an official told Iranian state media. Reuters was unable to verify the report.

Iran fired volleys of rockets at Israel, with missile debris hitting Haifa, Tel Aviv, and other spots, but there were no immediate reports of deaths.

In Abu Dhabi, authorities were tackling fallen debris in the Mussafah industrial area after a successful interception by air defense systems.

In a post laden with expletives on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, Mr. Trump threatened further strikes on Iranian energy and transport infrastructure that critics say would constitute a war crime.

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran,” he said.

“There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP.”

MIXED MESSAGES
In the kind of mixed messaging that has baffled supporters, foes and financial markets alike, Mr. Trump told Fox News on Sunday that Iran was negotiating, with a deal possible by Monday.

Later on Sunday, Axios said the United States, Iran and regional mediators were discussing terms of a potential 45-day ceasefire that could bring a permanent end to the war, citing four US, Israeli and regional sources with knowledge of the talks.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report. The White House and the US State Department did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

The mediators were negotiating a two-phased deal, the report said. The first phase would be a 45-day ceasefire; the second would be an agreement on ending the war.

Anwar Gargash, an adviser to the United Arab Emirates president, said any settlement must guarantee access through the Strait of Hormuz.

He warned that a deal that failed to rein in Iran’s nuclear program and its missiles and drones would pave the way for “a more dangerous, more volatile Middle East.”

Iranian weekend strikes on petrochemical facilities and an Israeli‑linked vessel in Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates underscored the country’s ability to fight back despite Mr. Trump’s repeated claims to have knocked out its missile and drone capabilities.

Israeli rescuers retrieved two bodies from the rubble of a residential building in Haifa hit by an Iranian missile on Sunday, Israeli media said.

About 3,540 have been killed in Iran since the war erupted, including at least 244 children, said US-based rights group HRANA.

Lebanon’s heavy casualties include 1,461 killed in Israeli strikes targeting the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia, including at least 124 children, Lebanese authorities say.

COMMANDO OPERATION
Mr. Trump described the rescue of the airman in the early hours of Sunday as “one of the most daring” such missions in US history.

The airman, the weapons officer of an F-15 jet shot down on Friday, was wounded but “will be just fine,” Mr. Trump said in a message on X. The jet’s pilot had been rescued earlier.

Under cover of darkness, US commandos slipped deep into Iran undetected to scale a 7,000‑feet (2,100-meter) high ridge and took the stranded American weapons specialist to safety before dawn on Sunday.

Two MC-130 aircraft that had ferried some of the roughly 100 special ‌operations forces into rugged terrain south of Tehran suffered a mechanical failure and could not take off, a US official told Reuters.

Their commanders made a high-risk decision, ordering additional aircraft to fly into Iran to extract the group in waves.

US troops destroyed the disabled MC‑130s and four additional helicopters in Iran, rather than risk leaving behind sensitive equipment. Iran said several US aircraft were destroyed during the operation. — Reuters

SEOUL — South Korea must accept a degree of risk in importing crude oil from the Middle East amid blockages of the Strait of Hormuz, President Lee Jae Myung said on Monday.

“There are not many alternative routes, and if shipments are cut off altogether because of heightened risk, it could have a serious impact on South Korea’s crude supply and pose a major risk to the public, so we need to strike a balance and accept a certain degree of risk,” Mr. Lee said in a cabinet meeting.

South Korean authorities have been consulting with other oil-producing countries to secure alternative routes, including Saudi Arabia, Oman and Algeria, ruling Democratic Party lawmaker Ahn Do-geol said on Monday.

Mr. Ahn told reporters that diplomatic efforts led by the foreign ministry included the potential dispatch of special envoys to support the process.

The industry ministry is pushing a plan to deploy five South Korean‑flagged vessels on the Red Sea route and officials had discussed supplying government‑held oil reserves to private refiners first, with swaps to be made once replacement cargoes secured overseas arrive in the country, he said.

Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol on Friday met envoys from Gulf Cooperation Council member states to ensure a steady supply of oil, liquefied natural gas, naphtha, urea and other critical resources, the ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

Like many other Asian economies, South Korea relies heavily on energy imports, including through the Strait of Hormuz, which was a conduit for 20% of the world’s oil before the US and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran on Feb. 28. Iran has since effectively shut down the waterway, driving up energy prices and stoking fears of a global recession.

The energy ministry said the government planned to meet a goal of supplying 100 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2030 as soon as possible and expand the share of power generation from renewables to more than 20%.

Inter-Korean border areas would be included as a solar power deployment zone, while residents living near high-voltage transmission line construction sites would be allowed to directly invest in projects and earn income from them, it said.

South Korea has also set a target for hydrogen reduction steelmaking, which uses hydrogen instead of coal or gas, with a 300,000-ton pilot facility to be completed by 2028, with full commercialization targeted for after 2037. — Reuters

FRANKFURT — Germany’s armed forces are working on clarifying a provision in a recently updated military service law that requires fighting-age men to gain permission to leave the country for more than three months, the defense ministry said.

The law went into effect in January, but the requirement — which theoretically affects millions of men between the ages of 17 and 45 in the European Union’s most populous country — had gone mostly unnoticed until a local newspaper report highlighted it on Friday.

A defense ministry spokesperson stressed that military service in Germany is voluntary, adding that the ministry was “currently drafting specific regulations for granting exemptions from the requirement for approval, also to avoid unnecessary bureaucracy.”

The controversial new military service law was passed last year to boost Bundeswehr numbers and meet North Atlantic Treaty Organization targets amid the growing view within Germany that it has relied too long on the United States and as tensions with Russia spur calls for stronger defense capabilities across Europe.

The legislation seeks to ensure a robust and reliable military registration system, the defense ministry spokesperson said in an e-mailed response.

“In the case of an emergency, we must know who may be residing abroad for an extended period,” he said.

He declined to comment further on how the process may eventually look.

Germany wants to increase the ranks of active soldiers to 260,000 by 2035 from 183,000 at the end of last year, with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz telling military leaders last year that the country needed to become capable of defending itself as quickly as possible and needed soldiers.

Opposition politicians over the weekend criticized the government for creating confusion with the law. — Reuters