infrastructure, which would violate international law. Posting on social media late last Thursday, Trump threatened to attack “Bridges next, then Electric Power Plants”, adding that Iran’s leadership “knows what has to be done, and has to be done, FAST!” His remarks came after he shared footage of a US strike on a newly built bridge linking Tehran to Karaj, and said: “The biggest bridge in Iran comes tumbling down, never to be used again – Much more to follow!” The B1 bridge, which had been due to open this year, was hit in an attack that killed eight people and wounded 95 others, Iran said.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned the targeting of civilian infrastructure. “Striking civilian structures, including unfinished bridges, will not compel Iranians to surrender”, he said in a statement posted on X, adding that such actions “convey the defeat and moral collapse of an enemy in disarray”. Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran, said the double-tap strike on the B1 bridge happened while Iranians were celebrating ‘Day of Nature’ and while families were out and about in the area near the bridge. “Infrastructurally speaking, it was one of the most important projects, one of the most time-consuming and expensive projects, in the country”, he said.

US and Israeli strikes have meanwhile continued to target senior Iranian military officials. Behnam Rezaei, deputy chief of naval intelligence of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was confirmed to have been killed, Anadolu Agency reported on Friday, quoting Iranian media. The Israeli army earlier said it had killed Rezaei on March 26, but there was no confirmation from Iran.

Nearly five weeks since the war began with a joint US-Israeli attack, instability has spread across the region and shaken global energy markets. Countries have scrambled to restore shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical artery for oil and gas flows. Satellite imagery this week showed smoke rising from Iran’s Qeshm island, which sits near the strategic waterway, underscoring the growing risks to regional infrastructure. Trump has intensified his rhetoric as indirect negotiations with Iran’s new leadership show little progress and domestic criticism of the war mounts. Araghchi warned against any “provocative action”, including at the United Nations Security Council, ahead of this weekend’s vote on a proposed resolution that, if it passes, would authorize UN member states to use “defensive means” to open the waterway. “Any provocative action by the aggressors and their supporters, including in the UN Security Council regarding the situation in the Strait of Hormuz, will only complicate the situation,” Araghchi said.

Iranian media has already signaled potential retaliation for attacks against it, publishing a list of major regional bridges that could be targeted following the Karaj strike. The semiofficial Fars News Agency reported that key crossings in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan could be at risk. The IRGC said that it has already struck US-linked industrial sites in the Gulf, including steel facilities in Abu Dhabi and aluminum installations in Bahrain. “These attacks are a warning, and if the attack on Iranian industries is repeated, the next response will be much more painful by attacking the main infrastructure of the occupation regime and the American economic industries in the region,” the IRGC said. (Al Jazeera)