• Trump says nuclear Iran ‘unacceptable’; Rubio says Washington will ‘love to reach’ diplomatic solution • Tehran calls US obsession with Kolang fabricated pretext for aggression, questions IAEA’s role
• US strikes multiple targets, bombs land near nuclear power plant; Larak island in Hormuz struck
• Iranian army says several drones, multiple helicopters destroyed

WASHINGTON/TEHRAN: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to hit civilian infrastructure, including bridges and power plants, in response to attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, prompting Tehran to warn of similar attacks on US allies in the Middle East.

In a post on Truth Social, the US president said for every ship struck by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, Washington will destroy one Iranian bridge or power plant.

“From 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, including those located next to, or in, the capital city of Tehran,” he wrote. After the war resumed, multiple tankers and ships have been attacked in the Strait of Hormuz, bringing the traffic almost to a halt.

Iran is “going to pay a big price”, he said while on his way to a ceremony for American troops killed in fighting with Tehran. “Iran can never have a nuclear weapon; they won’t have a nuclear weapon,” said Trump.

Iran said it would pay the US back in kind. It pledged to launch retaliatory strikes on civilian infrastructure in the Middle East — including bridges and energy sites — linked to the United States if it struck Iranian bridges or power plants.

“Iran has an iron will in exercising sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz and will never allow [it] to become a threat to Iran again,” the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, citing an unnamed military source.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said a nuclear-armed Iran was unacceptable to the US. “It can’t happen,” he told reporters in Manila. He clai­med if it were allowed to happen, “within two years”, Iran could threaten to overwhelm the US with “tens of thousands” of drones and missiles that “they were on pace to build — they can’t do that now”.

The US would “love to reach a diplomatic settlement” with Iran, he said, amid reports that efforts were underway to broker a ceasefire. “We’d love to reach an agreement if it were possible with Iran … where they say, ‘We will no longer sponsor terrorism, and we will not pursue a nuclear weapon or the things you need for a nuclear weapon,” he told reporters.

According to Rubio, the US was in contact with Saudi officials over the threat by Yemen’s Houthis to attack commercial vessels in the Bab al-Mandeb waterway in the Red Sea. “We’ve been engaged with the Saudis a number of times over the last week in regards to that threat. It’s not a new threat, but it’s one that’s manifested itself in the past,” he told reporters. “At the gist of that issue is the fact Iran is in the middle of it. Talking about the troublemaker in the region, it’s Iran.” He said that the US will not accept Iran’s attempts to “control” global shipping.

Meanwhile, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Iran war has cost the country $37.5 billion so far, up from a previous estimate of nearly $29 billion in mid-May, AFP reported.

‘Nuclear scare just a pretext’

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei said that US attacks on the country’s nuclear facilities not only violated the UN Charter and international law, but also “reveal the United States’ deep-rooted enmity toward Iran’s scientific progress and technological development”. Noting that Iran’s nuclear activities have been fully declared to the IAEA, Baqaei added that Washington’s obsessive focus on the facility at Kolang Kouh “is nothing more than a fabricated pretext for aggression, destruction, and sabotage”. He said there was no activity taking place there. “By the way, where is the Director General of the IAEA, who is also a candidate for UN Secretary-General?” he quipped in a post on X. “The Iranian people stand resolute and united, ready to confront with full strength any act of US hostility or violation of their country’s sovereignty and national security,” he added.

No let-up in strikes

Meanwhile, Iran and the US forces continued to exchange strikes. The Iranian news agency Tasnim reported a US missile strike on the island of Larak in the Strait of Hormuz, saying residents heard a loud explosion there. Tehran residents also reported hearing explosions in the early hours of Wednesday as Iran activated its air defences over the capital, Reuters reported. Three locations in Iran’s Bushehr Province, home to Iran’s only nuclear power plant, were hit by US attacks as well, an official told Iran’s state news agency IRNA.

Al Jazeera reported that the provincial deputy governor for security affairs told Fars agency that two explosions occurred in the city of Bushehr and a third took place near Khormoj. He said the attack resulted in no loss of life or injuries. He said power was temporarily knocked out in Bandar-e Gah village after missiles struck an electrical substation near the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant but was restored within two hours.

US forces also launched a missile strike on an area near the city of Baneh in Kurdistan, IRNA reported.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed the forces struck US bases in Jordan, which resulted in “multiple casualties”. “The IRGC Aerospace Force launched the 25th wave of Operation Nasr 2 as a direct counter to hostile provocations,” a statement carried by state news agency IRNA read. “In its first phase, a combined missile-and-drone assault on the Malik Faisal and Prince Hassan bases, an F-15 assembly hangar was successfully hit.”

In a separate strike on a drone preparation facility, eight factory-fresh MQ9 drones, still unopened in their original crates, were obliterated prior to deployment, while two additional units parked nearby suffered heavy damage,” it added. The IRGC claimed an attack on a helicopter storage hangar caused major destruction to two large American helicopters aircraft, while a strike on a barracks “resulted in multiple casualties among enemy personnel”.

A statement from Iran’s military said Jordan’s Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Azraq and Bahrain’s Isa Air Base have been targeted with drones. The army targeted the “housing and welfare buildings” and “equipment warehouses” of the US army at the Azraq base in Jordan with drones in the morning, the statement, cited by the Mehr news agency, said.

It may be noted that after fighting resumed between the two states almost two weeks, traffic in the strait has almost come to a halt. Shipping monitor MarineTraffic’s data showed on Wednesday that only nine vessels crossed the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours, compared to 29 crossings in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea.

Published in Dawn, July 23rd, 2026