Trump Weighs Strikes on Iran Power Plants and Bridges as June Ceasefire Collapses
Updated
Updated · The New Yorker · Jul 17
Trump Weighs Strikes on Iran Power Plants and Bridges as June Ceasefire Collapses
3 articles · Updated · The New Yorker · Jul 17
Summary
Trump discussed broader attacks with his national-security team this week, including possible strikes on Iranian bridges, power plants and water facilities unless Tehran returns to talks.
The threat follows the effective collapse of a June ceasefire and a fresh escalation in which the U.S. resumed strikes, tightened a Hormuz blockade and reimposed oil sanctions while Iran hit Gulf shipping and U.S. bases.
Hormuz has become the central dispute: both Washington and Tehran are asserting control over a waterway that carries about a fifth of global oil and gas supplies, with critics saying the ceasefire text was too vague to contain that clash.
Trump's shifting line—from regime change to diplomacy and back to harsher threats—has drawn criticism from former U.S. officials, who argue bombing has failed to force capitulation and has already cost the U.S. more than $130 billion.
Iran has still left a narrow diplomatic opening, with parliament speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf saying negotiations now would not amount to capitulation.