Trump says US 'not finished' attacking Iran as conflict widens

President Donald Trump said the US was "not finished" attacking Iran on Tuesday as the conflict widened, with Tehran launching strikes on Gulf states and its Houthi allies threatening to blockade Saudi ports. The escalation came amid fresh US strikes, rising military casualties and continued diplomatic contacts through mediators. President Donald Trump said the US was "not finished" attacking Iran on Tuesday as the conflict widened, with Tehran launching strikes on Gulf states and its Houthi allies threatening to blockade Saudi ports.

The escalation came amid fresh US strikes, rising military casualties and continued diplomatic contacts through mediators. By: FRANCE 24 This image provided by the US Marine Corps shows an Iranian flag behind a Marine on July 16, 2026. © Sgt. Joseph Helms, US President Donald Trump warned on Tuesday that the United States was "not finished" attacking Iran, as Tehran widened strikes on Gulf states after its Houthi allies threatened to blockade Saudi ports. Two weeks after fighting resumed between the decades-old foes, Trump said Iran would need more than 20 years to recover from the damage inflicted in the Middle East war.

"If we left right now, it would take Iran 20, 25 years to rebuild, he said. "We're not finished at all... we're not leaving right now.

The warning came as Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain reported Iranian attacks, and as Trump used a White House meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun to pledge support for his fragile effort to disarm Hezbollah and move towards peace with Israel. Bahrain said it intercepted Iranian attacks as sirens sounded repeatedly, while Kuwait and Jordan said they had intercepted drone and missile strikes. Kuwait said Tehran had hit power and water desalination plants over several days, including on Monday, forcing residents to ration energy.

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Cover France 24 01:32 Iran's Revolutionary Guards confirmed a strike on Jordan, saying they had targeted a "complex housing US terrorist forces in the region of Rukban". The Iranian army had earlier said it targeted US assets in Kuwait and Bahrain, including air defence systems, radar installations and administrative buildings. "With this radar sweep, the enemy should prepare for even more decisive and powerful waves of drone and missile attacks, the Guards said in a statement carried by state news agency IRNA.

Trump said he would "take care of" Yemen 's Iran-backed Houthi rebels if they followed through on a threat on Monday to blockade Saudi Arabia's ports. "If something like that happens, we take care of it, Trump said. "We've done that with the Houthis before, and we haven't heard from them in a while since we did what we did originally.

Saudi Arabia strongly condemned the threat from what it called the "terrorist Houthi militia". It remains unclear how the Houthis would enforce such a blockade. But maritime intelligence provider Vanguard Tech said a Singapore-flagged tanker and a Liberia-flagged tanker both "reversed course" in the Red Sea after loading crude at the Saudi port of Yanbu.

Cover France 24 02:04 If the Houthis make good on the threat, they could endanger Riyadh's ability to bypass the Strait of Hormuz for some oil exports, with major repercussions for the global economy. Saudi Arabia and the Houthis traded fire last week for the first time in years, threatening a 2022 truce, but the rebels have largely remained on the sidelines since Israel and the United States attacked Iran in late February. The Revolutionary Guards said on Tuesday that two tankers attempting to transit the strait "were hit by explosions, resulting in massive fires that brought them to a standstill".

The UK Maritime Trade Operations agency earlier reported that an "unknown projectile" struck a tanker off the coast of Oman. Following the deaths of at least three US soldiers in recent days, Washington launched new attacks against Iran on Monday that it said were "designed to further degrade" Iranian capabilities used to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. The deaths bring to 17 the number of US service members killed since the war resumed on July 7. Nearly 100 have been wounded, the Pentagon said on Monday.