'Begging for Deal' | Trump renews threats on Iran’s infrastructure amid tanker attacks and reprisals

President Donald Trump threatened Wednesday to unleash more military strikes against Iran after saying that Iranian attacks signalled the end of the ceasefire. But he later said the most recent exchange of fire with the Islamic Republic did not herald a return to full-scale war. Trump, who is known for sending mixed messages about his intentions, has repeatedly threatened to escalate strikes against Iran, only to pull back after claiming diplomatic progress. He said Wednesday that the US would “probably hit them hard again tonight,” and later added that the latest back-and-forth fighting would not result in “long-term” military action. “Anything that happens is going to happen very fast," Trump said, though he also suggested the US military might “just finish the job.” A day after assaults on commercial shipping escalated into an exchange of strikes on Iranian and US military targets, Trump also renewed his past threats to hit Iran's civilian infrastructure, including electric plants and desalinisation plants, and to seize the oil-production hub of Kharg Island. Speaking on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Ankara, Turkiye, Trump said the strikes are continued retaliation for Iranian attacks on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz. “They are behaving very badly,” he said of Iran, accusing the country of launching drones and a missile at ships. After three tankers were hit Tuesday, the US launched strikes on Iran, and Iranian forces retaliated by attacking American military sites in the Persian Gulf. Iran has asserted that the interim ceasefire deal gives it the right to manage traffic through the strait. Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, a key negotiator in talks seeking a permanent end to the war, was defiant in a post on X: “The era of bullying and extortion is over. It leads nowhere. We don't fold.”