{"id":526825,"date":"2026-07-15T05:53:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T05:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/526825\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T05:53:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T05:53:11","slug":"us-reimposes-blockade-trump-threatens-to-strike-irans-infrastructure-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/526825\/","title":{"rendered":"US reimposes blockade, Trump threatens to strike Iran’s infrastructure"},"content":{"rendered":"

US President Donald Trump says more US strikes on Iran are coming \u2013 and bridges and power plants will be targets unless negotiations resume.<\/p>\n

The US military is reimposing its blockade of Iranian ports in response to Iran\u2019s attacks on commercial ships on the Strait of Hormuz, as the interim ceasefire deal unravels and concerns grow about a return to all-out war.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re going to hit them very hard tomorrow night,” Trump told Fox News. “We\u2019re going to hit them very hard the night after, and then next week it gets really bad for them, because next week comes the power plants. Next week comes the bridges. We\u2019re going to knock out all their power plants. We\u2019re going to knock out all their bridges unless they get to the table and negotiate.” <\/p>\n

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\u2019s nuclear programme, but talks have stalled as fighting over the strait has intensified<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When US President Donald Trump announced the return of the blockade Monday, he also said he would impose a 20% fee on ships passing through the strait. But he dropped the plan to collect fees hours before resuming the blockade, citing requests from allies in the Gulf.<\/p>\n

The interim peace agreement was supposed to reopen a waterway that is key to world energy supplies<\/a> and give negotiators time to hammer out a permanent end to the war. Instead, fighting has once again engulfed the region, threatened the global economy and brought warnings to commercial airlines.<\/p>\n

The US carried out another wave of strikes ahead of reimposing the blockade, a US official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military operation. Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs, Kazem Gharibabadi, said in an interview aired Tuesday by IRIB, Iran\u2019s state broadcaster, that the US was seeking to prevent Tehran from exercising what he described as \u201ceffective sovereignty\u201d over the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n

There are at least 19 US warships in the northern Arabian Sea, including two aircraft carriers and an amphibious assault ship with more than 1000 Marines aboard, to enforce the blockade. US Central Command also said that there are “hundreds of military aircraft operating across the Middle East” in a social media post Tuesday.<\/p>\n

A fifth of all traded crude oil and natural gas passed through the Strait before the war, when it was open to all without tolls. When the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, it effectively shut the passage by attacking and threatening ships \u2014 a tactic that proved its greatest strategic advantage. That sent the price of oil, fertiliser, and other goods soaring at a time when world leaders were already struggling to address rising costs.<\/p>\n

Iran has more recently attacked ships moving through the Strait on a route overseen by the US military that is outside Tehran\u2019s control, setting off tit-for-tat strikes. The US has threatened to reopen the Strait by force \u2014 but experts say that would require a much bigger armada, if not tens of thousands of ground troops.<\/p>\n

New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade summoned the Iranian ambassador today to convey the country’s “serious concerns regarding recent escalation in the Strait of Hormuz and across the Gulf region”.<\/p>\n

“We urged immediate de-escalation and a return to diplomacy, and reiterated our condemnation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps\u2019 destabilising activities, including beyond the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Trump says he’s replacing the fees with Gulf investments<\/p>\n

\"President<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump speaks as he meets with Iraq’s Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, July 14, 2026, in Washington. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

On Monday (local time), Trump said the US would reimpose a blockade on Iranian ports and begin charging ships fees equivalent to 20% of their cargo to defray the costs of securing the Strait. He backed off on the fees a day later, while the blockade is set to come back into force in the coming hours.<\/p>\n

Trump said he was called by \u201ckings and emirs\u201d and other leaders who suggested an alternate arrangement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said we\u2019d love to do it a different way. We\u2019d love to invest in the United States with billions and billions of dollars,\u201d Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday (local time).<\/p>\n

Trump said he preferred that arrangement to charging tolls \u201cbecause I don\u2019t think anybody should be able to charge a fee for the Strait.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was unclear if the investment deals would be new commitments relative to what Trump announced after a visit last year to the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Trump told Fox News on Tuesday evening that more US strikes against Iran were coming over the next two days and that bridges and power plants could be targets by next week unless negotiations resume.<\/p>\n

Later in the interview, Trump suggested he wasn\u2019t interested in continuing talks immediately with Iran because \u201cthey lie.\u201d But he also said the last contact he had with negotiators was earlier in the day.<\/p>\n

Trump said US forces had been careful not harm the civilian population but warned Iran: \u201cYou better make a deal, or you\u2019re not going to have anything left.\u201d<\/p>\n

Strikes and counterstrikes resume across the Mideast<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The US Navy conducts flight operations on the USS George H.W. Bush. (Source: Supplied)<\/p>\n

The US military\u2019s Central Command said it struck several areas in Iran, targeting \u201ccoastal defence systems, missile and drone sites and maritime capabilities\u201d. Iran acknowledged the strikes but provided no immediate casualty or damage assessments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese strikes will continue imposing a heavy cost on Iranian forces and degrade their ability to attack innocent civilians and commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,\u201d the US military said.<\/p>\n

Iran responded with attacks targeting Kuwait, Jordan and three tankers that travelled through the Strait. In Bahrain, which hosts the US Navy\u2019s 5th Fleet, air raid sirens sounded on four occasions Tuesday as authorities told people to seek shelter.<\/p>\n

Two of the targeted ships were associated with the United Arab Emirates and were set ablaze for a time. The International Maritime Organisation said the attack on the tankers Mombasa and Al Bahiyah killed two mariners and wounded 14 others. The UAE threatened to retaliate.<\/p>\n

Dutch shipping firm Stolt Tankers said that one of its ships came under attack. The attack on the Stolt Magnesium off Oman sparked a fire in the engine room, but the company said all the mariners were safe.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said the Mombasa and Al Bahiyah \u201cignored repeated warnings\u201d. Iran has targeted ships that use a route through the Strait that passes near Oman outside of its territorial waters.<\/p>\n

Hours after the US said it ended its campaign of strikes, the Iranian city of Bushehr on the Persian Gulf was hit in at least four locations, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. The attacks again raised the possibility that Gulf Arab states were retaliating against Iran without discussing it in public.<\/p>\n

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency warned airlines against operating in the airspace of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, as well as over the Gulf of Oman.<\/p>\n

The interim peace deal is in peril<\/p>\n

\"Mourners<\/p>\n

Mourners gather to commemorate the late leader at the Imam Khomeini Mosalla Grand Mosque in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, July 14, 2026. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Exchanges of fire in recent days had already cast doubt on the interim peace deal \u2014 now almost halfway through the 60-day period in which negotiators were supposed to agree to a final accord, which also was meant to address Iran\u2019s disputed nuclear program and other issues.<\/p>\n

Washington lifted a blockade it imposed in mid-April as part of the deal. The US military said it will resume it at midnight Wednesday (local time) in Dubai.<\/p>\n

Trump’s plan to charge fees would have been a change to longstanding US policy and a departure from recent US promises that the Strait would remain open to all without tolls \u2014 recently offered by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on a trip to the region.<\/p>\n

Under the interim deal, Iran agreed that passage through the Strait would remain free of charge for 60 days \u2014 but the agreement left open what would happen after. Iran asserts it has the right to manage traffic through the Strait and potentially charge fees. The US has disputed that.<\/p>\n

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, briefly topped US$87 early Tuesday<\/a>, still well below the nearly US$120 reached at the height of the war. The price dipped to US$78 in the aftermath of Trump\u2019s announcement that he had changed course.<\/p>\n

Mediators are trying to prevent a return to full-scale war<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Two men wade in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz with vessels anchored in the background, off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Sunday, July 12, 2026. (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Regional mediators are still trying to get the United States and Iran back to the negotiating table, according to two regional officials.<\/p>\n

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the delicate diplomatic process, said Pakistan-led mediation was working around the clock to reactivate the ceasefire.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Lebanese and Israeli delegations were expected to meet in Rome on Tuesday to continue US-mediated negotiations. Shortly after the US and Israel launched the war on February 28, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah joined the conflict in support of its ally, Iran, and began attacking Israel. Israel responded with a ground invasion of Lebanon.<\/p>\n

Last month, Lebanon and Israel announced a \u201cframework agreement\u201d outlining the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon in exchange for the disarmament of Hezbollah. Implementation has stalled.<\/p>\n

Before the fighting around the Strait intensified, Israel\u2019s war against Hezbollah in Lebanon repeatedly threatened to derail the interim deal. A truce now exists in Lebanon, but it remains unclear whether it will hold if the US and Iran return to full-scale war.<\/p>\n

\u2013 additional reporting by 1News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US President Donald Trump says more US strikes on Iran are coming \u2013 and bridges and power plants…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[65,42,5107,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-526825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}