As Clashes Continue To Escalate Between The U.S. And Iran, Trump Goes Back To Threatening Tehran’s Key Infrastructure

President Donald Trump went back to threatening to strike Iranian key infrastructure if Tehran does not return to negotiating as clashes between the countries continue.

Speaking to Fox News' Trey Ingst, Trump said "next week it gets really bad for them." "Next week comes the power plants, next week comes the bridges. We're going to knock out all of their power plants. We'll knock out all of their bridges unless they get to the table and negotiate," he said.

Axios reported that Trump held a Situation Room meeting on Tuesday to discuss a new offense against Iran, which would expand from the strikes around the Strait of Hormuz that have been taking place over the past days.

So far, most of the targets were air defenses and radar systems, as well as anti-ship missile positions and drone launch sites. Officials said the goal was degrading Iran's ability to target ships crossing through the key waterway. Iran, in turn, continued to launch attacks against U.S. bases in Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain.

The U.S. Central Command said on Wednesday that it conducted a new wave of strikes, "designed to further degrade military capabilities Iranian forces have used to attack commercial shipping" in the strait.

A new survey has found that four in five Americans expect the U.S. war with Iran to continue for an extended time.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll was completed over this past weekend and found that 79 percent of Americans believe the U.S. military will be involved in activity for "an extended period of time." The wire service noted that the figure was up from 65 percent in May.

About 18 percent thought things might end in a "matter of weeks."

The poll found that only 37 percent supported the U.S. resuming strikes against Iran in response to attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait is a key shipping lane with 20 percent of the world's oil being exported through it. Disruptions to the shipping lane have repeatedly caused oil prices to spike.

Iran, on its end, is signaling that it may expand pressure on global shipping beyond the strait by leveraging its Houthi allies in Yemen to threaten the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the narrow waterway connecting the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden.

Together, the two chokepoints are among the world's most strategically important shipping lanes, carrying significant amounts of oil and commercial cargo. Reuters reported that the strategy would allow Iran to widen the conflict beyond the Persian Gulf and increase economic pressure on Washington and its allies.

The latest warning came from Mohammed al-Farah, a member of the political bureau of Yemen's Ansarullah movement, better known as the Houthis. According to a quote cited by Reuters from Iran's Press TV, al-Farah said Yemen's armed forces were prepared to close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait if Saudi Arabia continued military operations against Yemen.

"If the current situation aggravates, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Strait of Hormuz will be closed in an operational alliance," al-Farah warned, adding that oil prices could surge to as much as $200 per barrel under such a scenario.