The China Mail - Trump 'not finished' with Iran as Tehran steps up strikes

The US leader projected that it would take the Islamic republic more than 20 years to rebuild from damage sustained in the Middle East war, two weeks after fighting between the decades-old foes resumed.

"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."

His comments came after Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain came under attack Tuesday.

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels meanwhile said they would blockade Saudi Arabia's ports, threatening to throw energy markets into chaos after Iran's Strait of Hormuz blockade.

Bahrain said it intercepted Iranian attacks as sirens sounded multiple times in the kingdom, with Kuwait and Jordan also announcing they had intercepted drone and missile strikes.

Kuwait has said that Tehran hit multiple power and water desalination plants across the country over the past days, including on Monday, forcing residents to ration energy consumption.

Iran's Guards confirmed a strike on Jordan, claiming 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.

- Houthi threat -

US President Donald Trump said he would "take care of" the Houthi rebels if the Iran-backed militant group followed through on its threatened blockade of Saudi ports.

"If something like that happens, we take care of it," Trump said. "You know, 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" and said it "continues to support the brotherly Yemeni people and their legitimate government".

It remains unclear how the Houthis would implement their blockade of Saudi ports, and oil markets eased slightly despite the threat from Iran's ally against the world's biggest crude exporter.

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 following the Houthi warning.

Should the Houthis make good on their threat to blockade Saudi ports, that would put at risk Riyadh's ability to bypass Hormuz for some of its oil exports and have 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 in their years-long conflict, but the rebels have largely remained on the sidelines since Israel and the US attacked Iran in late February.

The Revolutionary Guards said on Tuesday that two tankers attempting to transit Hormuz "were hit by explosions, resulting in massive fires that brought them to a standstill".

The UK Maritime Trade Operations agency (UKMTO) earlier reported that an "unknown projectile" struck a tanker off the coast of Oman.

- 'Still struggling' -

Following the deaths of at least three US soldiers in recent days, the US launched a new round of attacks against Iran on Monday it said was "designed to further degrade Iranian military capabilities used to attack commercial shipping" in the Strait of Hormuz.

The deaths bring to 17 the number of fatalities among US service members. Nearly 100 US service members have been wounded since war resumed on July 7, the Pentagon said Monday.

Shahin, a 34-year-old embroiderer from Iranshahr in southeast Iran, said: "We're still struggling to secure our most basic life necessities, and now we're dealing with destruction from the war on top of it."

As Iran stepped up its attacks in the Gulf, Kuwait's foreign ministry on Tuesday said it had summoned Iran's ambassador over a strike against a ship passing through the Hormuz strait the day before.

Despite the latest fighting, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said diplomatic exchanges with Washington via mediators were ongoing.

Mediator Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called for restraint from all warring sides during a meeting with Iran's Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni on Tuesday.

Sharif urged the sides to "refrain from actions that could further destabilise the region", his office said.

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A.Sun--ThChM