US President Donald Trump said air strikes on Iran will continue until he says “it’s enough,” as Tehran and Washington stepped up attacks in a battle to control the Strait of Hormuz, in what the United Nations called a “huge setback” for civilians in the region.
Speaking to Fox News on July 14, Trump said US negotiators held talks with Tehran during the day as he again urged Iranian officials to agree to a deal to end the war.
When asked during the interview how long the US strikes would continue, Trump responded: “They’ll continue until I say it’s enough.”
He also warned the range of targets the US military may engage would broaden if Tehran doesn’t 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.”
While explosions rocked several cities across southern Iran during a fourth consecutive day of air strikes, Iran launched missiles at its Gulf neighbors, including Jordan, Bahrain and Kuwait.
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry expressed “strong condemnation” of Iran’s attacks on several Arab countries, holding Tehran “responsible for the consequences of continuing these cruel attacks.”
With a memorandum of understanding reached last month that aimed to give the two sides 60 days to negotiate a broad peace deal in tatters, fighting has been concentrated around the Strait of Hormuz, a key global transit route for energy and consumer products.
Trump threatened a day earlier to charge a 20 percent fee on cargo shipped through the Strait of Hormuz under the guardianship of the US military, but on July 14 he proposed replacing that with trade and investment agreements with Persian Gulf states while maintaining a blockade on Iranian shipping.
“Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
He provided no details of any commitments by Gulf governments but said the investments would be “MASSIVE.”
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said a naval blockade against maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports was reinstated from 4 p.m. Eastern Time on July 14.
“CENTCOM forces will enforce the blockade against vessels transiting to or from Iranian ports and coastal areas. The U.S. military continues to support traffic flow through regional waters for all vessels not violating the blockade,” CENTCOM said in a statement.
The strikes are the latest sign of the unraveling of an accord signed last month setting out conditions under which the two sides would negotiate a peace deal.
Over the weekend, Trump notified Congress that the United States was once again at war with Iran, starting a 60-day period during which he could order military strikes without having to seek formal approval from lawmakers.
On July 14, the US Treasury announced a series of moves to increase pressure on what it called Iran’s sanctions evading network, especially targeting Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, which it says remains a “major force” behind Tehran’s oil exports while expanding into global containerized shipping and commodities trading.
“The Iranian regime survives on deception, and the Shamkhani network is one of its most profitable engines,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in the statement announcing the sanctions on July 14.
“Treasury is shutting down the financial infrastructure that allows the regime to continue its threats to U.S. national security and global shipping.”
In all, the action includes more than 50 individuals, entities, and vessels that Washington says enable Shamkhani and the Iranian regime “to continue profiting while the Iranian people remain burdened under the economic yoke imposed by their government.”
“This action is part of Treasury’s ongoing efforts to ramp up economic pressure on the Iranian regime after it resumed destabilizing attacks in the Strait of Hormuz,” the Treasury said in the statement.
The UN high commissioner for human rights Volker Turk said in a statement late on July 14 that the return of clashes in the region posed “grave risks” for civilians.
“The return to wider hostilities in the Middle East between the US and Iran is a huge setback for civilians in the region and beyond. It undermines peace efforts and deepens instability, with grave risks for human rights across the entire region,” Turk said.
By threatening and attacking international shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran has brought maritime traffic to a virtual standstill, giving it significant leverage over its neighbors in the Persian Gulf and the global economy, making it one of the main battlegrounds of the conflict.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has said the only way to restore regular shipping traffic through the strait was to end US military intervention in the waterway.
War Of Words Raises Risks
The latest confrontations are unfolding against an increasingly volatile political backdrop.
Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei vowed revenge for the killing of his father and predecessor, Ali Khamenei, saying retaliation “must inevitably be carried out.”
Ali Khameini, who was killed in US and Israel air strikes on February 28 as the war broke out, was buried on July 9 at the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad.
“This matter depends neither on my personal existence nor on that of other officials. Whether we are present or not, it will come to pass,” he said, adding that Iran had compiled a list of individuals to be targeted.
Hours earlier, Trump warned that any assassination attempt against him would trigger overwhelming US military retaliation.
