{"id":563393,"date":"2026-07-22T23:57:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T23:57:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/563393\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T23:57:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T23:57:19","slug":"iran-vows-eye-for-an-eye-after-trump-threatens-to-destroy-bridges-and-power-plants-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/563393\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran vows \u2018eye for an eye\u2019 after Trump threatens to destroy bridges and power plants \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump<\/a> has threatened to destroy an Iranian<\/a> bridge or power plant every time Iran\u2019s forces target a ship in the Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, as the US president attempts to assert control over the contested waterway.<\/p>\n

In a social media post on Wednesday, Trump said that the potential targets included bridges and power plants in Tehran or close to the Iranian capital.<\/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, including those located next to, or in, the Capital City of Tehran\u201d, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s threat came after the 11th consecutive night of US strikes on the Islamic republic, as the two nations edged closer to a return to full-blown conflict. <\/p>\n

Five tankers changed course in the Red \u200bSea to avoid the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Wednesday, a day after the Houthi threat to block Saudi oil exports highlighted a new risk to global oil supplies from the escalating conflict.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s joint military command warned, according to state media, that if Trump\u2019s threat against infrastructure was carried out, Iranian forces would target regional oil, gas, electricity and economic infrastructure and prevent the export of \u201ceven a single drop of oil\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur defence doctrine is clear: eye for an eye. Any aggression against Iran, \u200bincluding our infrastructure, will compel a powerful and decisive response,\u201d Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said on X. Iran\u2019s near-total blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has stoked inflation around the world.<\/p>\n

Late on Wednesday night, Yemen\u2019s Houthis said they had carried \u200cout a military operation targeting two Saudi \u200boil tankers, identified \u200bas Encela and Laylia, \u2060saying the \u200bvessels violated a naval \u200bblockade imposed by the group.<\/p>\n

The Iran-aligned Houthis said \u200bon Monday \u200bthey were imposing a naval \u200cblockade \u2060on Saudi Arabia, drawing a warning from the Saudi-led \u200bcoalition \u200bthat \u2060it would respond \u201cfirmly\u201d.<\/p>\n

The ratcheting-up in tit-for-tat strikes between the US and Iran has sent oil prices higher over the past month. Brent crude, the international benchmark, was up 3.4 per cent at $94.10 a barrel on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The latest developments in the conflict comes the US House of Representatives narrowly passed its version of a massive defence policy Bill on Wednesday night, despite Democrats\u2019 concerns about its huge price \u200btag, the Iran war and a provision that would boost Pentagon ties to Israel.<\/p>\n

The fiscal 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, which authorises an unprecedented $1.15 trillion in spending for the military, passed the House by 216 to 212.<\/p>\n

US secretary of state Marco Rubio<\/a> told reporters in Manila on Wednesday that US strikes against Iran would continue until Tehran got \u201cserious\u201d about negotiations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe president always prefers to negotiate and reach a deal on these things, and we [are] willing to do that. We\u2019ve tried to do that now for a year and a half, but we\u2019re also not going to sit by and let ships be blown up or Americans be attacked,\u201d Rubio said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe remain open to working it out in a negotiated way, but right now, they don\u2019t seem to be serious about that, and so we\u2019re going to continue to protect shipping,\u201d Rubio added. \u201cWe are going to, when the opportunity presents itself, degrade their ability to target global shipping.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s threat was the latest escalatory rhetoric from the US president against Tehran. He said on Tuesday that US forces would attack the heavily fortified Iranian nuclear facility deeply buried beneath Kolang Gazla \u2013 known as Pickaxe Mountain \u2013 in central Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be hitting that area pretty soon, and very heavily,\u201d he said during a meeting with Lebanon\u2019s president Joseph Aoun at the White House.<\/p>\n

The US military has focused its strikes over the past 15 days on military and logistics targets that Iran could use to attack the strait, including missile and drone launch sites and coastal surveillance locations, including a surveillance tower at Chah Bahar Shahid Kalantari Port.<\/p>\n

But the US has already targeted civilian infrastructure, striking several bridges, a tunnel, railway lines, an airport and maritime traffic control towers along Iran\u2019s southern coastline, as well as in cities further inland, according to Iranian officials.<\/p>\n

US strikes have also hit power transmission lines, water facilities and telecoms infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Explosions were reported across several Iranian cities including Tabriz, Hendijan, Khormoj and Bushehr overnight, according to state media. Air defence systems were also activated in Tehran early on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s health ministry said on Wednesday that 53 people had been killed and nearly 600 injured in the latest flare-up of the conflict in the past few weeks. Iranian armed forces have signalled they are prepared to escalate the conflict by targeting critical infrastructure across the region if the US strikes continue.<\/p>\n

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement on Wednesday that the US had hit a number of military and civilian targets overnight, despite the fact that no vessels had \u201cdared\u201d to cross through the \u201cunauthorised\u201d southern route of the strait, and \u201cconsequently, no explosions took place\u201d \u2013 an apparent reference to the IRGC striking what they described as \u201cviolating\u201d vessels in recent days.<\/p>\n

In response, its forces targeted US military assets at the King Faisal and Prince Hassan airbases in Jordan, the statement added. \u201cThe campaign to punish the aggressor will continue\u201d in order to prevent the enemy from \u201crepeating a cycle of war, negotiation and war,\u201d it said. <\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s conventional army said it had also carried out drone strikes on military bases in Kuwait and Bahrain. During testimony on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, US defence secretary Pete Hegseth said Washington had \u201cbeen in control of moving traffic through [the strait] for quite some time\u201d.<\/p>\n

The US military reimposed a naval blockade of Iranian ports last week and by Tuesday had redirected eight vessels, according to US Central Command, which oversees Washington\u2019s military operations in the Middle East. US forces have also struck and disabled one commercial ship.<\/p>\n

Trump on Wednesday said that Iran would \u201cpay a big price\u201d for the deaths of four US troops killed during the conflict in recent days, as he left for Dover Air Force Base to receive the service members\u2019 remains. \u2013 Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026\/Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump has threatened to destroy an Iranian bridge or power plant every time Iran\u2019s forces target a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,11829,150432,14396,20878,43,26574,40,38,41,39,115,73076,1197],"class_list":["post-563393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-iran","tag-israel-iran-conflict","tag-lebanon","tag-marco-rubio","tag-news","tag-pete-hegseth","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-states","tag-us-house-of-representatives","tag-yemen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}