Trump threatens to strike Iran power plants unless deal reached – Middle East crisis live | US-Israel war on Iran
Here is our wrap on all the latest:
Key events
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Wednesday it had targeted what it described as command-and-control, logistics, fuel and military equipment facilities belonging to the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, Reuters reports.
This was in response to what it said were US actions in the Indian Ocean and efforts to control the strait of Hormuz and restrict shipping routes.
The Guards warned that if Washington sought to block the region’s oil and gas exports by controlling maritime routes, other export routes serving US and allied interests could also be closed, saying regional energy exports would be “for everyone or for no one”.
US military’s Central Command says it ends latest round of strikes targeting Iran
US Central Command (Centcom) completed an additional round of strikes against Iran at 10pm ET, on 14 July 14, hitting dozens of military targets near the strait of Hormuz and Iranian coastal areas, Centcom said in a statement.
US fighter aircraft, drones, and naval vessels launched precision munitions against Iranian missile and drone sites, naval capabilities, and coastal defense systems during the seven-hour wave to further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping and civilian crews,” it said.
Iran’s revolutionary guards have also said the strait of Hormuz will remain closed until the “end of America’s evils”, according to Reuters news agency.
The guards claimed they also attacked Kuwait’s Mina Abdullah, and ‘set fire to and destroyed’ a US military logistics and support centre.
The Guardian could not immediately verify the claims.
The Iranian army says it has targeted US military facilities at Azraq base in Jordan for a second time, according to state media.
In an interview with Fox news earlier today Trump said:
Next week comes the power plants, next week comes the bridges,” Trump said, “unless they get to the table and negotiate.
But the 1949 Geneva conventions on humanitarian conduct in war prohibit attacks on sites considered essential for civilians.
Life on the sidelines of a renewed conflict in the Middle East – boys playing along the shallow waters of the strait of Hormuz, off Bandar Abbas in Iran, as plumes of smoke rise in the background.
The US first imposed the blockade in mid-April and then lifted it in mid-June, a day after the signing of the interim deal aimed at permanently ending the war.
The deal set a 60-day timeline to also negotiate an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, but talks have stalled as fighting over the strait has intensified.
Today, Iran’s deputy foreign minister said the US decision to renew the blockade “has, in a way, dismantled the Islamabad memorandum”.
Kuwait intercepting Iranian drones
Kuwait says its air defences are now intercepting Iranian attack drones.
Kuwaiti air defenses are currently engaging hostile drone attacks following the nefarious Iranian aggression,” the Kuwaiti army said.
Sirens in Bahrain
Sirens have sounded in Bahrain, the country’s interior ministry has said.
We’ll bring you more as it comes in.
Here is our wrap on all the latest:
Interim recap
A quick recap of where we are at:
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US forces have carried out strikes against Iran for a fourth day in a row and reimposed a naval blockade to prevent ships from sailing to or from the country’s ports.
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President Trump backtracked on his threat to heavily tax ships passing through the strait of Hormuz, but warned he would expand US strikes on Iran next week to target power plants and bridges if Tehran does not agree to a deal.
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“Next week it gets really bad for them because next week comes the power plants. Next week comes the bridges,” Trump told Fox News. “We’re going to knock out all their power plants. We’re going to knock out all their bridges unless they get to the table and negotiate.”
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US Central Command (Centcom) said the latest strikes were aimed at “degrading Iranian capabilities used to attack commercial shipping” in the strait, the key shipping channel for Gulf oil and gas where Tehran has repeatedly carried out attacks on civilian vessels.
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Iran’s deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi said the US decision to renew the blockade “has, in a way, dismantled the Islamabad memorandum”.
Some more details now on the fresh round of US sanctions aimed at boosting efforts to disrupt an Iranian shipping network that Washington says helps to evade previous sanctions on oil sales and other activities.
The measures have been imposed on the network of Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani represent the US Treasury’s latest effort to ramp up economic pressure on Tehran, the department said.
The Shamkhani network is a “major force behind Iran’s oil exports and has expanded into global containerized shipping and commodities trading,” Treasury said.
Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said his department is “shutting down the financial infrastructure that allows the regime to continue its threats to U.S. national security and global shipping”.
Centcom commander Adm. Brad Cooper says that Iran has intentionally targeted civilians across the region by attacking seven commercial ships in the past week.
He said the attacks has “resulted in nearly a dozen civilian crew members killed, missing or injured”.
Kuwait’s fire force says a blaze at one site has been brought under control after it was targeted in Iranian attacks, with no injuries reported, according to the Kuwaiti state news agency.
Trump also told Fox News that he would expand US strikes on Iran next week to target power plants and bridges if Tehran does not make a deal.
Next week it gets really bad for them because next week comes the power plants. Next week comes the bridges,” Trump said. We’re going to knock out all their power plants. We’re going to knock out all their bridges unless they get to the table and negotiate.”
Trump says strikes will continue until he says it’s enough
Speaking in an interview on Fox News, president Donald Trump said that strikes will continue on Iran until “I say it’s enough”.
They [Iran] have some fight left but they don’t have much.”
Coral Murphy Marcos
Over in the US, after Senate Democrats blocked the advancement of a defense bill earlier on Tuesday, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said that Democrats will “not go along” with Donald Trump’s continuing hostilities with Iran.
“Donald Trump is dragging America deeper into a war in Iran with no authorization, no plan, and no exit strategy. Democrats will not go along,” Schumer said in a statement on social media, reposting a news article about the hold-up of the National Defense Authorization Act. He added:
Senate Democrats just sent a clear message: the day after Trump notifies the extension of this unauthorized war, defies bipartisan majorities in Congress, and refuses to level with the American people about the cost, the mission, or the endgame, we will not proceed as if business is usual while our servicemembers’ lives are at risk and Trump drives costs for groceries and gas out of control.