WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday warned Iran to “behave” or face further expanded military action, declining to set a deadline for potential attacks on Iranian infrastructure as the United States intensified its military campaign.
Asked by a journalist whether he was giving Iran a deadline before ordering strikes on bridges, Trump replied: “I don’t like giving deadlines, but they pretty much know — they know the story. They better behave.”
“Are you giving Iran a deadline before you start bombing bridges?”@POTUS: “I don’t like giving deadlines, but they pretty much know — they know the story. They better behave.” pic.twitter.com/D7r6rypkx3
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 15, 2026
The US President’s remarks came hours after the United States launched a new wave of strikes against Iranian targets and reimposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports.
Earlier, in an interview with Fox News, Trump warned that Washington could expand its campaign next week to target Iran’s power plants and bridges unless Tehran returns to the negotiating table.
US strikes Iranian targets
The United States launched a wave of strikes against Iran on Wednesday, after it reimposed a naval blockade in a return to war between the two foes.
Nearly a month after the US and Iran signed the Islamabad memorandum of understanding aimed at ending the Middle East war, the two sides resumed fighting with strikes on targets across the region.
The Islamabad MoU was signed on June 17 by US President Donald Trump, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif after Islamabad brokered a ceasefire between Washington and Tehran.
Under the Islamabad MoU, the US and Iran committed to halt military operations, reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping and negotiate a comprehensive agreement covering Iran’s nuclear programme, US sanctions and a permanent ceasefire within 60 days.
On Wednesday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they targeted the US Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, where the military said it had intercepted attacks against civilian targets, while Jordan’s armed forces said they had downed three missiles from the Islamic republic.
Several explosions were also heard late Wednesday near the US consulate in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region, AFP reported.
Trump warns of expanding strikes against Iran
Trump, meanwhile, threatened to widen strikes next week to hit power plants and bridges unless Tehran returns to the negotiating table.
“Next week it gets really bad for them,” he told Fox News.
“We’re going to hit them very hard tonight. We’re going to hit them very hard tomorrow night. We’re going to hit them very hard the night after, and then next week it gets really bad for them.”
Speaking with FOX News’ @TreyYingst, President Trump warned that Iran’s energy… pic.twitter.com/ieHMeZ76oC
— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 14, 2026
Meanwhile, Iran’s top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf told state television on Wednesday that the country will give a “definitive response” to the US for their “crimes”, according to the Tasnim news agency.
“We have pledged our jugular vein for the defence of this homeland,” Ghalibaf was quoted as saying.
“We have achieved great honours in a complex war with the greatest material power in the world, and our thinking and action must be equally great, complex, and resilient,” Ghalibaf added.
“Our position of strength in the Strait of Hormuz is the result of the same field strength that the people have created for us.”
قالیباف: مردم جنوب کشورم، شما عزیز جان ایران هستید، جان ما هزار بار فدای شما
شاهرگمان را برای دفاع از این مملکت گرو گذاشتهایم
پاسخ قطعی این جنایتها را به دشمن جنایتکار خواهیم داد https://t.co/ByebvAWSx0
— خبرگزاری تسنیم (@Tasnimnews_Fa) July 15, 2026
Despite renewed hostilities, Pakistan and Qatar mediated talks between the two sides have not formally ended.
At the heart of the resumption of hostilities has been the dispute over the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway that is crucial for global oil and gas flows.
US-Iran agreement
Iran blockaded Hormuz after the war erupted with US-Israeli strikes on February 28, using the waterway for leverage against its foes for months.
The strait was briefly reopened after the US and Iran signed the Islamabad MoU last month, before Tehran vowed last week it would be closed again “until the US ends its aggression”.
Traffic through the waterway remained low, with maritime tracker Kpler reporting only 21 transits on Tuesday.
The US, in turn, has reimposed its own blockade of Iran’s ports.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said the renewed US blockade “has, in a way, violated the Islamabad memorandum”.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it launched “a wave of strikes… designed to further degrade military capabilities Iranian forces have used to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz”.
Iranian state media reported explosions near the port city of Bandar Abbas, on the island of Qeshm and on Bandar Imam Khomeini. It later said fresh US strikes hit the southern port city of Bushehr, home to the country’s only civilian nuclear plant.
Trump scraps levy on ships
Since the war began, Iran has asserted its control over the Strait of Hormuz and opened fire on ships for taking routes it says are unauthorised.
“The retaliatory operations of the fighters will continue,” the Guards said.
A Norwegian tanker was hit by an explosion caused by an unidentified device off the Omani coast early Tuesday, the crisis response company MTI Network said.
And Kuwait said one of its naval vessels was struck during an Iranian missile and drone barrage, wounding four crew members.
Trump, meanwhile, said he was scrapping a planned 20-percent levy on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz that he announced Monday, replacing the fee with trade deals with Gulf states.
Since last week, renewed US attacks have killed at least 30 people in Iran, government spokesman Fatemeh Mohajerani said.
Separately, the military announced that seven of its personnel were killed in Wednesday’s strikes on the southeast.
