Trump threatens strikes on Iran's energy targets

President Donald Trump on Tuesday reimposed a naval blockade of all Iranian ​ports and threatened to hit power plants and bridges next week unless Tehran resumes negotiations, in the latest U.S. escalation of the conflict.

The U.S. also began a fresh round of strikes “to continue ‌degrading Iranian capabilities used to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” the U.S. military said.

Tehran says it has again closed the strait after hostilities between Iran and the U.S. reignited last week, fraying an already fragile truce reached in June after several months of fighting that has killed thousands.

“I’ll save the energy targets for last, but ultimately we’ll hit energy targets,” Donald Trump said in an interview with Fox News’ Trey Yingst.

“Next week comes the power plants, next week comes the bridges,” Donald Trump said, “unless they get to the table ​and negotiate.” The 1949 Geneva Conventions on humanitarian conduct in war prohibit attacks on sites considered essential for civilians.

U.S. negotiators had been in touch with their Iranian counterparts to tell them “you better make a deal”, Donald Trump ​added.

Iran’s army said early on Wednesday that it had launched drone attacks against U.S. positions at Jordan’s Azraq base. There was no immediate comment from the Pentagon.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary ⁠Guard Corps said they targeted weapons and storage facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait.

Read more: Iran Guards say Hormuz to remain closed till US ends ‘acts of aggression’: state TV

Kuwait’s army said its air defenses were confronting Iranian drone attacks and the state news agency said a fire had been brought under control.

Reuters could not ​immediately verify the reports.

The flare-up over the last few days has heightened doubts that a memorandum of understanding signed last month would lead to a permanent halt to the war, which has engulfed Iran’s neighbors and disrupted global energy supplies.

American ​projectiles hit a location around Bandar Abbas, an Iranian city on the strait, the governor’s office told state media late on Tuesday, while Iranian state news agency IRNA said U.S. projectiles hit an area near Sirik in southern Iran.

“If the U.S. thinks that by tightening its measures against us, its military actions and its economic blockade, we will return to negotiations, it is making a mistake,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi told state television.

Before the war began in February, about a fifth of global oil and gas shipments ​passed through the Strait of Hormuz each day.