Trump renews threat to Iran’s infrastructure, as naval blockade reimposed

A view of the B1 bridge is pictured, a day after it was destroyed by a strike in Karaj, Iran, on April 3.

US President Donald Trump renewed his threat yesterday to strike bridges and power plants in Iran unless Tehran returns to the negotiating table.

“Next week it gets really bad for them, because next week comes the power plants. Next week comes the bridges,” Trump told Fox News. He also said Tehran should make a deal otherwise they’re “not going to have anybody left.”

The US president has made similar threats before, issuing in April a stark warning to Iran, saying “a whole civilization will die tonight” as a US-imposed deadline approached for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz.

But what do experts say about the legality of hitting power sites and bridges?

Retired Brigadier Gen. Mark Kimmitt told CNN that “bridges and infrastructure that are primarily being used to support military forces are legitimate military targets,” adding that he “didn’t hear anything about civilian infrastructure” in Trump’s comments.

“Let’s hope we’re going to stay focused on the military targets,” Kimmit added.

Amid previous threats from Trump to hit Iranian power plants, legal expert Craig Jones, a senior lecturer at the UK’s Newcastle University, told CNN there are two key questions to consider: Does such action have a “concrete and direct” military advantage? And if so, is this advantage proportionate to the harm inflicted on civilians and the environment?

Even if there is a legitimate military advantage to be gained, Jones said that doesn’t mean the action necessarily meets the “threshold for proportionality,” which requires impact on civilians to be considered.

Other experts expressed similar concerns.

Heba Morayef, regional director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, said earlier this year the potential for “devastating” civilian harm arising from strikes on energy infrastructure means there is a “substantial risk such attacks would violate international humanitarian law and in some cases could amount to war crimes.”

In March, Ben Saul, UN special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights, condemned both US and Iranian threats to target civilian energy infrastructure. He said such attacks, if carried out, would constitute “war crimes under international law.”

More than 30 civilians have been killed in US strikes on southern regions of Iran in recent days, Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani said on X.

“We extend our deepest condolences and sympathies to the bereaved families and honor the memory of those who were killed. The government will stand with the people and provide its full support,” Mohajerani said in the post reported by multiple state-linked media.

US President Donald Trump’s threat to bomb bridges and power plants in Iran next week unless Tehran comes to the negotiating table will not help resolve the conflict, former Ambassador and Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill told CNN.

“That’s quite problematic,” Hill told CNN of Trump’s threat, which the president made in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday.

“And I’m not sure that’s going to get us to a solution,” said the former diplomat, adding that it was “not the way to go.”

Trump has previously threatened to target other Iranian infrastructure including oil wells and water desalination plants.

Objects indispensable to a population’s survival are prohibited as military targets under the Geneva Conventions.

Vessels at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, on Wednesday.

A total of 17 commercial vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, with just 10 of those outbound from the Persian Gulf, according to data from analytics firm Kpler.

All but one of the outbound ships took either the “dark route,” turning off GPS tracking while going through the strait, or the Iranian route, which requires pre-approval from Tehran according to the Kpler data.

Some of those vessels may have been trying to exit the Gulf before the US reimposed its blockade of Iranian posts at 11:30pm local time (4 p.m. ET).

Transits through the strait had risen after the lifting of the previous US blockade and the signing of the memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran. But crossings had stalled again in recent days since strikes resumed.

Sandi Sidhu contributed reporting.

Jordan’s military said its air defenses intercepted and shot down three missiles launched from Iran early Wednesday, in a statement published by state news agency Petra.

There were no casualties or damage, the statement said.

Earlier, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed it struck hangars housing US fighter jets and “destroyed” several US MQ-9 drones at Jordan’s Al-Azraq Air Base, Iran’s semi-official Fars News reported. CNN cannot independently verify the claim and has reached out to US Central Command (CENTCOM) for comment.

In a meeting with Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Safadi in Washington, DC Tuesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Iran’s repeated strikes on Jordan “unacceptable,” according to a State Department statement.

Donald Trump takes questions from reporters during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on Tuesday.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday loosely raised the possibility of a ground campaign as the war with Iran heats up, but he was vague about any specifics.

“I don’t want to do that,” he said of a ground war in an interview with Fox News.

“Sometimes you need a ground campaign, but we have other people that will do the ground campaign for us,” Trump said, without offering any suggestions on who those people might be.

Analysts have said possible locations for a ground campaign include Kharg Island – Iran’s main oil export terminal – or Iran’s southern shores along the Persian Gulf.

But be it US troops or forces from another country, getting them landed on Iranian shores – and in numbers to sustain their presence – would be a complex and dangerous operation.

As amphibious assaults require specific land and sea conditions for successful landings, defenders can concentrate their defenses on the likely spots.

Approaches for landing craft can be mined or blocked with obstacles. Modern weaponry like drones and loitering munitions, as well as traditional artillery, mortars and light infantry arms can then be brought to bear on troops that make it ashore.

And analysts note that the logistics to keep landed troops supplied with munitions, medical aid, food and water leave their supply vessels vulnerable to the same weapons the invasion force faced.

“The balance of littoral warfare has shifted strongly in favor of the defender,” US Army Capt. Daniel S. Hogestyn writes in the May-June edition of the service’s Military Review journal.

US troops in region: Defense Department media shows the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), typically numbering more than 2,000 troops, is in the region embarked on ships of the USS Boxer Amphibious Ready Group.

MEUs typically have been used for missions like evacuations and amphibious operations that require ship-to-shore movements, like raids and assaults. They also have ground and aviation combat components, and some units are trained for special operations.

In addition, the US Army’s 82nd Airborne Division’s Immediate Response Force can be deployed in a matter of hours for missions like seizing ports or airfields.

As the US military reimposed its blockade of Iranian ports on Tuesday, the US government ramped up its economic pressure campaign on Tehran by further targeting one of Iran’s most notorious oil magnates.

The Treasury issued a new slew of sanctions against individuals, entities and vessels connected to Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, who is considered a central player in the “shadow fleet” network that has generated billions of dollars in oil revenue for Moscow and Tehran.

Shamkhani, who also goes by the alias Hugo Hayek, was born in Tehran and previously also held citizenship for the Caribbean state of Dominica, according to the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Dominica has been accused of selling passports to fugitives and revoked Shamkhani’s citizenship last year amid international pressure.

He is the son of the late Ali Shamkhani, the former head of Iran’s National Security Council and top advisor to the slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Both Ali Shamkhani and Khamenei were killed in the same US-Israeli strike on the first day of the war with Iran.

People attend the funeral ceremony for Ali Shamkhani, who was killed in attacks by the United States and Israel, at the Imamzadeh Saleh Shrine in Tajrish Square in Tehran, Iran, on March 14.

The younger Shamkhani leveraged his father’s political influence to build and operate a fleet of tankers smuggling sanctioned oil from Iran and Russia, OFAC has alleged. His empire has now expanded into shipping and commodities trading, according to OFAC.

Shamkhani and his brother Abolfazl used “Hayek” aliases and Dominica passports to amass nearly $29 million in luxury Dubai real estate. according to an investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. Dominica revoked Abolfazl’s citizenship in March, the project reported.

Iran says it has targeted US military infrastructure in the Gulf in retaliation for US airstrikes and the reimposed blockade on Iranian ports.

CNN cannot independently verify Iran’s claims. The army and state media have repeatedly made claims about successfully targeting US assets that proved untrue, and CNN has reached out to US Central Command for comment.

Here are the claims Iran has made on its military action in the Gulf:

• Kuwait: Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed early Wednesday local time that they had struck a US Army logistics and support center located in Mina Abdullah, Kuwait, setting the building on fire, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news reported.

Video geolocated by CNN appears to show an Iranian drone striking an already-burning warehouse in an industrial area near Mina Abdullah in Kuwait. It’s not clear if there is any US link to the building seen on fire.

Late Tuesday local time, the Kuwait Fire Force said they had extinguished a blaze “caused by a hostile Iranian aerial aggression,” the official Kuwait News Agency reported, without listing a location for the fire.

• Bahrain: The IRGC claimed they targeted a command and control center, warehouses, and fuel storage facilities used by the US Fifth Fleet, state media IRNA reported. Earlier, the IRGC claimed to have “destroyed” the control center for US unmanned boats in an attack on Bahrain, the semi-official Fars News said.

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U.S. renews blockade on Iranian ports

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U.S. renews blockade on Iranian ports

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• Jordan: Iran’s army claimed it struck US military assets at the Al-Azraq Air Base in Jordan, according to Iranian state news agency IRNA. It alleged that Iranian attack drones struck an area where F-18 fighter jets were stationed, an accommodation building, and a large equipment hangar that IRNA said belonged to the US army. F-18 fighter jets are normally on aircraft carriers and not on bases in the Middle East.

The IRGC also said its Air Force “destroyed” US MQ-9 drones at the base, according to semi-official Fars.

CNN’s Hira Humayun, Kathleen Magramo, Eyad Kourdi, Isaac Yee and Yasha Saebi contributed reporting.

The United States has reimposed its naval blockade of Iranian ports and launched a fourth consecutive night of strikes on Iran.

Attacks have also been reported in Washington’s regional allies — Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan — as Tehran said it was targeting US assets in the region.

Here’s what else you should know:

CNN’s Tori B. Powell, Lex Harvey, Kathleen Magramo, Isaac Yee, Clay Voytek, Hira Humayun, Eyad Kourdi, Mary Kay Mallonee, Jennifer Hansler, Kit Maher and Haley Britzky contributed reporting.

The wind and photovoltaic power station on the top of Mount Mi in Xuzhuang Town, Shanting District, Zaozhuang City, Shandong Province, China on July 8, 2026.

China is struggling to offset economic challenges both at home and abroad, as its economy grew at a slower-than-expected pace in the second quarter of the year.

On Wednesday, China’s National Bureau of Statistics said the economy grew 4.3% in the quarter ending June 30, compared to the same period a year ago.

The figures, which fell short of expectations for 4.5% growth, are a rare admission of economic weakness for China, which has long worked to prop up industrial activity with infrastructure investment and exports.

Higher energy costs during the war in Iran have helped lift China out of one of its longest periods of deflation, as the nation struggles with industrial overcapacity and sluggish domestic demand.

However, the continuation of attacks between the US and Iran could pose challenges to China’s economy. While China has buffered itself from the broader supply shocks, more expensive fuel and commodities could weigh on consumer sentiment and disrupt manufacturing.

Read more about China’s economic growth here.