Topline
President Donald Trump indicated on Wednesday that the United States would “probably” launch additional strikes against Iran, telling reporters at a NATO summit that the Iranian side was “behaving very badly.” He suggested potential U.S. targeting of bridges, power plants and desalination facilities, and floated the idea of seizing Kharg Island, a key node for Iran’s oil exports.
The U.S. launched renewed strikes on Iran on Tuesday in response to Iranian attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
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Key Facts
“We hit them very hard last night,” Trump said at a NATO summit in Turkey, adding that “we’ll probably hit them hard again tonight,” framing it as a warning to Iran.
Later, the president stated that the U.S. was not conducting attacks “at the highest level,” and speculated that within a single day, “we knock down every single bridge in Iran, there’s not a thing they could do about it.”
He also identified Iranian power and desalination plants as possible targets, revisiting earlier threats against civilian infrastructure made during the peak of hostilities.
Trump further mused about “taking over Kharg Island,” a heavily fortified Persian Gulf island that processes roughly 90% of Iran’s oil exports, noting it was among the sites hit in the previous night’s air operations.
Earlier Wednesday, Trump asserted that the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran was “over” and characterized further negotiations with Iranian leaders as “a waste of time.”
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
