Iran live updates: US blockade of Iran's Strait of Hormuz ports to begin Monday

When the injured airman who was shot down "was finally able to activate his emergency transponder, his first message ... (said) 'God is good,'" Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said during a briefing at the White House.

"In that moment of isolation and danger, his faith and fighting spirit shown through," he said. "Shot down on a Friday, Good Friday, hidden in a cave, a crevice all of Saturday, and rescued on Sunday. Flown out of Iran as the sun was rising on Easter Sunday."

A U.S. fighter jet with two airmen on board was shot down over Iran on Friday, and the jet's pilot was rescued the same day. The U.S. launched a search for the second missing airman who was trapped in the "treacherous mountains of Iran" with the Iranian military closing in, President Donald Trump said. That airman was rescued on Sunday.

Trump said the rescued airman "was injured quite badly and stranded in an area teeming with terrorists."

"Despite the peril, the officer followed his training and climbed into the treacherous mountain terrain and started climbing toward a higher altitude," Trump said. "He scaled cliff faces, bleeding rather profusely, treated his own wounds, and contacted American forces to transmit his location."

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President Donald Trump said the U.S. is "doing unbelievably well" in Operation Epic Fury and "at a level that nobody's ever seen before."

"The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night," he said of Iran during a briefing at the White House.

President Donald Trump said at the White House Easter Egg Roll on Monday that Americans against the war with Iran are "foolish," saying the conflict is "about one thing: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon."

"We are obliterating their country. And I hate to do it, but we're obliterating," he said.

Trump said if he had his "choice," he'd "take the oil."

"Because it's there for the taking -- there's not a thing they can do about it," Trump said. "Unfortunately, the American people would like to see us come home. If it were up to me, I'd take the oil, I'd keep the oil, I'd make plenty of money. And I'd also take care of the people of Iran."

"If it were up to me I'd like to keep the oil, I just don't think the people of the United States would really understand," he added.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said that Iran has been engaging in talks with Oman on examining "a procedure for the safe passage of vessels through the Strait of Hormuz."

Baqaei said the talks with Oman have been held at the level of deputy foreign ministers.

"We think these talks will continue until coming to a conclusion," he added.

Referring to President Donald Trump's deadline threat, Baqaei said Iranians will not be "subjugated" by deadlines in defending their country.

Trump threatened to target Iran's power plants and bridges unless the regime opens the Strait of Hormuz by Tuesday night.