DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 The U.S. military announced Wednesday that it was conducting a 12th night of strikes against Iran as both sides increasingly targeted civilian infrastructure.<\/p>\n
U.S. Central Command said the attacks were designed to \u201cfurther degrade Iran\u2019s ability to threaten civilian mariners and commercial vessels transiting regional waters,\u201d as the Americans push to regain control over the Strait of Hormuz and restore the flow of international shipping.<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump warned earlier Wednesday<\/a> that the U.S. would destroy one bridge or power plant each time Iran shoots at a ship in the strait<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom this point forward, any time the Islamic Republic of Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, whether it be by Missile, Rocket, Drone, or any other device or weapon, the United States will bomb and destroy ONE BRIDGE OR POWER PLANT,\u201d Trump wrote on social media.<\/p>\n The continued American airstrikes are occurring even as diplomatic efforts show little public sign of progress and officials on both sides have dug in on the dispute<\/a> over the crucial waterway for global energy that remains largely closed. The unpopular war threatens further worldwide economic disruption and is sending fuel prices up ahead of midterm U.S. elections this fall. <\/p>\n Seyed Abbas Araghchi, Iran\u2019s foreign minister, said his country would adopt an \u201ceye for an eye\u201d defense doctrine. <\/p>\n \u201cAny aggression against Iran, including our infrastructure, will compel a powerful and decisive response,\u201d he posted Wednesday on X. <\/p>\n Iranian state media reported that U.S. missiles struck locations late Wednesday near the cities of Ahvaz, Ramshir and Andimeshk in western Iran. Two people were killed in a U.S. missile strike in the town of Shalamcheh on the Iraqi boarder, Iranian state media said early Thursday.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, military officials in Kuwait said on social media that their air defenses were \u201cconfronting attacks by hostile drones, following the sinful Iranian aggression.\u201d <\/p>\n Iran has responded to U.S. attacks by targeting energy infrastructure and desalination plants<\/a> that provide drinking water in parched neighboring Gulf countries. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n AP AUDIO: Trump says US will destroy a bridge or power plant for each Iranian attack in the Strait of Hormuz\n <\/p>\n AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports President Trump is again threatening to target Iran\u2019s civilian infrastructure.<\/p>\n International law generally prohibits such attacks unless the infrastructure is being used for military purposes<\/a>. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n Sign up for Morning Wire:<\/strong> The costs of war are mounting<\/p>\n The closure of the strait, through which a fifth of the world\u2019s traded oil and gas passed during peacetime, has jolted the world economy<\/a> with effects far beyond the Middle East. A new threat<\/a> by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen to target Saudi shipping in the Red Sea puts another trade chokepoint at risk.<\/p>\n Trump traveled to Dover Air Force Base on Wednesday for the arrival of the remains of four U.S. service members. A day earlier Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth estimated in a fiery Senate hearing that the U.S. had spent $37.5 billion on the war so far. <\/p>\n Benchmark Brent crude oil rose to more than $93 a barrel<\/a> in trading. That\u2019s up from less than $72 early this month, which is roughly where it was before the war. Gasoline prices are also climbing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Iran says it has the right to manage traffic and potentially charge fees in the strait, which was open to all and toll-free before the war. It has attacked ships using a route through the strait that is overseen by U.S. forces and intended to be outside Tehran\u2019s control.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who has led negotiations with the U.S., appeared to brush off Trump\u2019s threats.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have repeatedly said that the situation of the strait will not return to prewar conditions,\u201d he wrote on social media..<\/p>\n Diplomatic efforts show no signs of progress<\/p>\n Before the latest strikes, Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni visited Pakistan, a key mediator in the conflict, seeking to revive diplomacy. But it was unclear what new arrangement might be reached to end the war, which lately has become a battle for control over the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s Interior Ministry spokesman Ali Zeinivand said \u201cdiplomacy isn\u2019t called off\u201d and that messages were still being exchanged, without elaborating, according to IRNA.<\/p>\n An Arab diplomat said Gulf states are increasingly pessimistic about finding an off-ramp for escalating hostilities and are particularly concerned about the latest round of threats.<\/p>\n The diplomat said countries in the region, in addition to Pakistan and Turkey, are continuing to push for de-escalation. But, he said the chances for any improvement currently appear bleak. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.<\/p>\n At a regional summit<\/a> in the Philippines, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio denounced Iran\u2019s actions in the strait.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we create a precedent in the Middle East where a nation state can decide that they are going to control an international waterway, charge a toll and if you don\u2019t pay them, blow up your ships, we have created a very dangerous precedent which will repeat itself in other parts of the world, including in this region,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Rubio said the U.S. remains open to negotiations with Iran, \u201cbut right now they don\u2019t seem to be serious about that\u201d so instead the focus is on protecting shipping.<\/p>\n In response to Iran\u2019s attacks, the U.S. re-imposed a blockade on Iranian ports.<\/p>\n Trump signals US may attack underground nuclear site<\/p>\n Speaking from the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump gave a dim view on possible talks, saying the U.S. had \u201cno interest in meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n He signaled that U.S. forces could soon target an under-construction Iranian nuclear site<\/a> buried deep under a mountain.<\/p>\n The site, known as Pickaxe Mountain, lies on the south side of Iran\u2019s Natanz nuclear enrichment site, which was bombed by the U.S. during the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in 2025. But Pickaxe Mountain has remained untouched as Iran continues to dig at the site.<\/p>\n Iran has always insisted its nuclear program is peaceful, while resuming the enrichment of uranium<\/a> to near weapons-grade levels since Trump scrapped a 2015 nuclear deal<\/a> during his first term.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Binkley and Toropin reported from Washington. Contributing were Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut; Michelle L. Price and Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines; and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 The U.S. military announced Wednesday that it was conducting a 12th night…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1105644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5311],"tags":[301822,301818,51,301820,5293,32,26934,4179,774,14535,83163,301821,2820,301819,8617,85213,602,285,8547,49,5213,978,659,7660,85987,263],"class_list":["post-1105643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-ali-zeinivand","tag-bassem-mroue","tag-business","tag-christopher-weber","tag-diplomacy","tag-donald-trump","tag-energy-industry","tag-general-news","tag-iran","tag-iran-government","tag-iran-war","tag-jim-gomez","tag-marco-rubio","tag-michelle-l-price","tag-military-and-defense","tag-mohammad-bagher-qalibaf","tag-pete-hegseth","tag-politics","tag-religion","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-government","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-war-and-unrest","tag-waterways","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116966680364872810","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1105643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1105643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1105643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1105644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1105643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1105643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1105643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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