Donald Trump has issued a stark warning to Tehran, saying the United States will strike an Iranian bridge or power facility for every attack on a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, a dramatic escalation as tensions across the Middle East continue to intensify.
The President delivered the ultimatum on Wednesday, signaling that potential US strikes could even reach targets in the Iranian capital, while oil prices surged to their highest point in more than a month.
‘Any time Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, whether it be by Missile, Rocket, Drone, or any other weapon, the United States will bomb and destroy ONE BRIDGE OR POWER PLANT,’ he wrote on Truth Social.
Military and legal specialists have warned that attacks on civilian infrastructure may violate international law and, depending on the circumstances, could be treated as war crimes.
Trump’s threat came after an eleventh consecutive night of US airstrikes, with the latest wave hitting command hubs, drone stockpiles, aircraft hangars and maritime-related targets, according to US Central Command.
Iran has pushed the vital Strait of Hormuz close to paralysis, targeting tankers with drones and missiles in a waterway that once carried roughly one-fifth of global oil supplies, rattling energy markets around the world.
The crisis widened further this week as Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen opened another front, announcing a blockade on Saudi shipping in the Red Sea and threatening one of the remaining routes for Gulf oil exports.
The combined pressure sent crude prices climbing above $95 a barrel and prompted two major global shipping companies, CMA CGM and Maersk, to impose emergency fuel surcharges on customers.
Donald Trump salutes during a dignified transfer solemn event for US service members killed during operations in the Middle East, at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, on July 22
A satellite view shows tunnel entrances at Pickaxe Mountain, of the Natanz nuclear facility, near Natanz, Iran, June 30
Three American soldiers were killed over the weekend when Iranian missiles tore into their living quarters at a base in Jordan, and a fourth died in Iraq during a controlled demolition of a downed Iranian drone. It brings the American death toll to 18.
Trump vowed revenge, writing: ‘Every time Iran kills an American Soldier they will pay for that killing many times over!’
The President’s sights are now trained on Pickaxe Mountain, a fortified underground complex near Natanz where Israeli intelligence indicates Iran has hidden its nuclear enrichment centrifuges.
Trump said US forces would hit the site ‘pretty soon, and very heavily’, adding of the Iranians: ‘There’s not a thing they can do about it.’
The lair is buried so deep that weapons experts doubt even America’s most fearsome bunker-busters could reach the centrifuges, forcing the US to consider sealing the tunnels instead.
US and Israeli forces flattened Iran’s three main nuclear sites during last year’s 12-day war, dropping 30,000lb bunker-busters in a blitz Trump branded a historic success.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tehran was not negotiating in good faith, telling reporters in Manila: ‘The problem we’re having right now is that they’re not serious about talks.’
Trump has dispatched additional F-16 and F-35 fighter jets to the theater from European bases and examined new battle options from his military chiefs, in a sign the conflict is poised to escalate.
Karoline Leavitt joins Trump at the dignified transfer at Dover on Wednesday
Members of the military pay their respects to the remains of U.S. Army service members Army 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad and Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, who were killed in an attack on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, and Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton, who was killed during a controlled detonation of a downed one-way unmanned aerial system at Erbil Air Base in Iraq
Trump walks by his Executive assistant Natalie Harp as they attend a dignified transfer
Members of the military carry the transfer case to the transport van during a dignified transfer
Join the discussion
Has Donald Trump struck the right balance on Iran?
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Dan Caine told senators during a hearing Tuesday that airpower alone could not bring Iran to heel.
‘As you look across the totality of history, airpower’s got limits, and we always have to be mindful of those,’ Caine testified.
Caine was appearing alongside Secretary of War Pete Hegseth as the Pentagon requests an additional $67 billion in emergency funding from Congress to fund the war, on top of $37 billion already spent.
