MANILA, PHILIPPINES – JULY 22: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends the ASEAN Post Ministerial Conference with the United States during the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting at the Philippine International Convention Center on July 22, 2026 in Pasay, Metro Manila, Philippines.
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President Donald Trump on Wednesday vowed that the U.S. will blow up an Iranian bridge or power plant — including those in the country’s capital city of Tehran — every time Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz.
The threat, delivered via a Truth Social post, ratchets up hostilities between the U.S. and the Islamic Republic that were already inflamed following the collapse of their ceasefire and the recent deaths of three American service members, whose remains Trump was scheduled to receive later Wednesday.
“From this point forward, any time the Islamic Republic of Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, whether it be by Missile, Rocket, Drone, or any other device or weapon, the United States will bomb and destroy ONE BRIDGE OR POWER PLANT,” Trump’s post read.
Those targets include “those located next to, or in, the Capital City of Tehran,” Trump specified.
Trump has previously threatened to attack Iran’s electrical plants, water facilities and other infrastructure. Experts have warned that such attacks could constitute war crimes under international law.
Earlier Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused Iran of not being “serious” about making a deal with the U.S., while reiterating that Washington was “committed to diplomacy” in the Middle East.
His comments come as U.S. Central Command hit Iranian targets for an 11th straight night as it continues to try to clear the Hormuz Strait, the vital oil-shipping route that has become Tehran’s key source of leverage in the war.
Centcom said it had hit military operations centers, drone storage facilities, and military logistics infrastructure.
Speaking at the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ meeting in the Philippines, Rubio said a key sticking point between Teheran and Washington was that Iran “demands the right” to control traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, a right it does not have under international law.
“If we create a precedent in the Middle East, where a nation state can decide that they are going to control an international waterway, charge a toll, and if you don’t pay them, blow up your ships, we have created a very dangerous precedent, which will repeat itself in other parts of the world, including in this region,” Rubio warned.
Rubio appeared to make a veiled reference to China, saying that “of all the regions in the world, the one I don’t need to teach about the importance of freedom of navigation in international waterways, it is this region.”
In separate comments made later in the day, Rubio said Washington remains willing to negotiate an end to the war.
“The U.S. would love to reach a diplomatic settlement, we’d love to reach an agreement if it were possible with Iran … where they say we’ll no longer sponsor terrorism and we will not pursue a nuclear weapon or the things that you need for a nuclear weapon,” he said.
But he also said that “right now they don’t seem to be serious” about making a deal, adding that Tehran had made commitments in last month’s memorandum of understanding “and within two weeks violated it.”
The U.S. Navy has in the past conducted “freedom of navigation” operations around disputed islands in the South China Sea, where several Southeast Asian countries have competing claims with China, whose “nine-dash line” claims almost all of the sea as its waters.
That is despite a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration that said that China’s claims has no basis under international law. China has refused to recognize that outcome.
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U.S. and Iran had signed an interim memorandum of understanding on June 17 that halted military operations, called for the reopening of Hormuz and established a 60-day window for negotiating a permanent agreement, including terms covering Iran’s nuclear program. But the document left the future management of the Strait of Hormuz unresolved.
Iran interpreted the text as recognizing a role for Tehran in managing traffic through the strait and potentially charging for maritime services after an initial 60-day period, but the U.S. maintained that the waterway must remain open without compulsory Iranian fees or restrictions.
Iran and Oman — which also border the Hormuz Strait — said in a joint June 23 statement that “All arrangements related to the Strait of Hormuz must fully respect the sovereignty and sovereign rights of the two Coastal States of the Strait.”
