Trump threatens retaliation against civilian targets if Iran strikes in strait

President Donald Trump departs Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, en route to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, on Wednesday, July 22, 2026. Trump threatened on Wednesday to strike bridges and power plants in Iran if it targeted any more ships in the Strait of Hormuz, as the prospect of a prolonged conflict pushed the price of oil to its highest level in over a month. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times)

By MAX BEARAK, ALAN YUHAS, ERIC SCHMITT and SHIRIN HAKIM

Iran’s leaders dug in against President Donald Trump’s threats on Wednesday to strike bridges and power plants in Iran if the country targeted any more ships in the Strait of Hormuz, with the foreign minister warning on social media that Iran would fight “an eye for an eye.”

Trump had made the threat in a similarly bellicose social media post, saying that U.S. forces would respond to attacks on ships with its own strikes, including in or near the capital, Tehran. Deliberate strikes on civilian infrastructure could be considered a war crime under international law.

With no sign of a letup in the fighting from either side, the price of Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, jumped 4% to nearly $95 a barrel on Wednesday.

Trump accompanied his bluster over the past week and a half with the reinstatement of a naval blockade on Iran as well as deadly military exchanges, but the escalatory tactics have so far failed to either stop Iranian attacks or force the country’s hard-line leaders, who want to prolong the war, back to the negotiating table.

The specificity of Trump’s threat also reflected how much the focus of the war has narrowed into a fight over the strait, a critical passage for global oil and gas, even as he maintains that his wider objective is preventing Iran from building a nuclear weapon. The strait was open and free to transit before the war began, but Iran has proved it can effectively control traffic with threats of strikes and, in doing so, gained powerful leverage over global markets.

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Tehran’s chief negotiator in peace talks, said Wednesday that if Iran could not export its oil, no other country in the region would be able to do so. He was apparently alluding to the recent announcement of a Red Sea blockade of Saudi Arabia by the Houthis, an Iran-backed group that controls much of neighboring Yemen.

Even as four American service members were killed in Jordan and Iraq over the weekend, bringing the number of those killed to 18, Trump administration officials have publicly downplayed Iran’s strikes on U.S. bases in the Middle East. In private, however, military officials have acknowledged a growing number of previously undisclosed injuries.

One U.S. military official, speaking Wednesday on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters, said that nearly a dozen U.S. troops were wounded severely enough by Iranian missile and drone attacks in Jordan and other countries this month that they were flown to a U.S. military hospital in Germany for treatment. The Defense Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Here’s what else we’re covering:

— Shipping charges: Two of the world’s biggest shipping firms said Tuesday that they would impose emergency fuel surcharges to compensate for a surge in fuel prices after the resumption of hostilities in the Strait of Hormuz.

— Red Sea: The Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen has declared a Red Sea blockade on Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally that has shifted much of its oil exports to the waterway from the Strait of Hormuz. Though it remained unclear how the Houthis would follow through on the threat, at least six vessels reversed course in the Red Sea on Monday and Tuesday, according to Kpler, a maritime data firm.

— Nuclear deal: The Trump administration plans to announce Wednesday a broad nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia that could lead to the country enriching its own fuel for nuclear reactors, U.S. officials said.