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US President Donald Trump on Monday said the Iranian people are willing to endure the bombing of their infrastructure if it means they will ultimately get freedom.
Mr Trump repeated that Iran only has until 8pm ET on Tuesday (4am GST on Wednesday) to make a deal “that's acceptable to me”, or all of the country's energy production and bridges would be destroyed.
“We have a plan, because of the power of our military, where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o'clock tomorrow night, where every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding and never to be used again,” Mr Trump said during a long media conference at the White House.
“I mean, complete demolition by 12 o'clock, and it will happen over a period of four hours.”
He added that his preferred outcome was still a deal.
Asked if he was concerned that such an intervention would be a war crime, Mr Trump said: “No. I hope I don't have to do it.”
He said Iranians are willing to suffer the consequences of the bombing campaign to gain freedom, and that the US had heard communications from Iranian people frequently saying: “Please keep bombing”.
“They want us to keep bombing, even if it jeopardises [them] because their life is in much greater danger [from the regime],” he said. “They want freedom for Iran.”
Earlier, Mr Trump said that Washington had sent guns to protesters in Iran but they had been intercepted.
“We sent some guns … it was supposed to go to the people so they could fight back against these thugs,” he said. “You know what happened? The people that they sent them to kept them. Because they said, 'Oh, what a beautiful gun, I think I'll keep it'.”
He said he was “very upset with a certain group of people” responsible for not delivering the weapons and vowed they would “pay a big price for that”.
Mr Trump said the Iranian regime had killed “up to probably 45,000 people” during protests this year.
He detailed the rescue mission of the US weapons expert who went missing after he and his pilot ejected from an F-15 fighter jet shot down by Iran on Friday.
While the pilot was swiftly rescued, the weapons officer was badly injured and became stranded in a remote area.
"In broad daylight over Iran for seven hours at times, facing very, very heavy enemy fire – we have a helicopter that's got a lot of bullets in it," Mr Trump said.
He added that the officer followed his training and climbed up a mountain towards higher altitude, in order to evade capture.
"He scaled, bleeding rather profusely, treated his own wounds and contacted American forces to transmit his location," Mr Trump said.
