Trump threatens to ‘unleash hell’ after Iran’s latest warning – live

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: ‘The president’s preference is always peace. There does not need to be any more death and destruction.

‘But if Iran fails to accept the reality of the current moment, if they fail to understand that they have been defeated militarily and will continue to be, president Trump will ensure they are hit harder than they have ever been hit before.

She added: ‘President Trump does not bluff, and he is prepared to unleash hell. Iran should not miscalculate again. Their last miscalculation cost them their senior leadership, their navy, their air force and their air defence systems.

‘Any violence beyond this point will be because the Iranian regime refuses to understand they have already been defeated and refuse to come to a deal.’

Iran has warned it will strike USS Abraham Lincoln, one of the world’s biggest aircraft carriers, if it falls within range of its missiles.

The threat comes after a large-scale missile attack failed to hit the vessel.

Footage has emerged of the moment Iran launched a series of shore-to-sea cruise missiles at the Lincoln carrier, which was deployed to the Middle East to support Operation Epic Fury.

Speaking in the White House yesterday, Donald Trump said: ‘They shot 100 missiles at one of our aircraft carriers, one of the biggest ships in the world, actually. And of 101 missiles shot, every single one of them was knocked down.’

But Iranian Navy commander Shahram Irani warned the warship was under constant surveillance ahead of another possible attack.

‘The USS Abraham Lincoln carrier is under constant Iranian monitoring and will be targeted as soon as it comes within range of missile systems,’ he said, according to the SNN news agency.

The Iranian foreign minister has further spoken out on the United States’s reported 15-point plan for peace in the Middle East.

In a somewhat enigmatic move, Abbas Araghchi said in a televised interview with state media: ‘If a position needs to be taken it will certainly be determined.’

He said ‘some ideas’ have been put forward as to how to end the conflict and that in ‘one or two instances’, he has seen this called a ’15-point plan’.

The official added: ‘These [ideas] were being presented in various formats as different ideas, all of which have been passed on to the country’s senior authorities.’

Mr Araghchi did not outright reject the reported American plan – but he did also say Iran has ‘no intention of negotiating for now’.

He further confirmed: ‘The American side has begun sending various messages through different intermediaries.’

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi at the traditional Quds Day rally in the capital of Tehran earlier this month

Israeli soldiers in a military jeep near the Israeli side of the border with Lebanon on Wednesday

Iran has said Lebanon and Hezbollah must be included in any ceasefire agreement with the US and Israel, according to news agency Reuters.

Such an arrangement would mean the war could only end if Israel’s offensive against the Iranian-based terrorist group, which is based in Lebanon, was also stopped.

Mediators were told by Tehran as early as mid-March it was seeking this sort of deal, according to regional sources.

Hezbollah has reportedly received ‘Iranian guarantees’ it would be included in any broader peace agreement.

An insider said: ‘Iran is prioritising Lebanon – it will not accept Israeli violations in Lebanon like what happened after the 2024 ceasefire.’

Israel and Hezbollah have been attacking each other since March 2, after the US and Israel first struck Iran on February 28.

Israel has also stepped up its ground offensive in southern Lebanon in recent days.

It says it aims to occupy much of the area to create a ‘defensive buffer’.

Iran is also thought to want any peace deal to end the conflict both on Iran and other Middle Eastern ‘resistance groups’, according to state television.

Tehran is waiting for American troops to arrive, an Iranian military advisor has said.

Mohsen Rezaie, who was recently appointed as an aide to the country’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, made the statement in a post on X.

He wrote: ‘When they have achieved no results from their air force, which is their strength, what do they expect from a ground operation?

‘Do American soldiers want to die for Israel? We are waiting.’

Mr Rezaie was previously a commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

The US plans to send more than 1,000 extra troops from an airborne assault unit to the region, Sky News has reported.

Yousef Al Otaiba, the UAE’s ambassador to the US, wrote in an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal that America’s war with Iran should only end in a way that removes the long-term threat Tehran poses to the Middle East.

He wrote: ‘We want Iran as a normal neighbor. It can be reclusive and even unwelcoming, but it can’t attack its neighbors, blockade international waters, or export extremism.

‘Building a fence around the problem and wishing it goes away isn’t the answer. It would simply defer the next crisis.’

Iran has been laying traps and moving military personnel and air defences to Kharg Island in preparation for a possible US invasion.

CNN reported that Iran is putting anti-personnel and anti-armour mines across the island, including on the shoreline where US may need to stage an amphibious landing.

The US has already targeted Kharg, with US Central Command stating on March 13 that 90 targets, including ‘naval mine storage facilities, missile storage bunkers, and multiple other military sites’ had been hit.

But Trump said the US military had avoided hitting oil infrastructure ‘for reasons of decency’.

Donald Trump will not attend a major annual gathering of American conservatives for the first time in a decade, a White House official confirmed today.

The Republican billionaire has been a marquee fixture at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) since 2016, but will miss this year’s edition due to a busy schedule amid the ‘ongoing Iran conflict,’ the official told AFP.

The conference this year is being held from Wednesday to Saturday near Dallas, Texas, with Trump originally expected to be the keynote speaker on the final day.

The president is nonetheless scheduled to speak Friday afternoon at FII Priority, a Saudi-backed investment summit in Miami, according to the event’s website.

At CPAC, top Republicans will seek to rally their conservative base heading into the November midterm elections, which will decide if Trump’s party maintains control of Congress for his final two years in office.

This year’s lineup also has an added geopolitical edge, with speakers including the exiled Iranian crown prince Reza Pahlavi, who is seeking to present himself as an interim leader to lead Iran should its clerical leaders fall.

Argentina’s energy trade surplus could reach £8.2billion this year due to high oil and gas prices and an increasing volume of crude oil exports.

Analysts and companies had previously estimated a surplus of between £6.7billion and £7.5billion for this year, but with prices rising amid the US-Israel war on Iran and Argentina’s crude exports expected to increase to 450,000 barrels per day from 350,000 bpd, forecasts are being adjusted up.

The International Monetary Fund is running scenarios on countries to gauge which economies could be in need of fresh financing if the Iran war drags on, Bloomberg News reported today.

The IMF has asked country desks at the IMF to share their analysis on areas from current account status to potential funding needs, the report said, adding the assessment is focused on nations with active financing programs.

Israel’s health ministry said today that since the start of the war with Iran, 5,165 people have been injured and taken to hospital.

Of them, 106 are still receiving treatment.

It added that 13 people are in a ‘serious’ condition, 26 are in a ‘moderate’ condition, 66 are in a ‘mild’ condition, and one is still under medical assessment.