After a month of open conflict between Iran and a US-Israeli coalition, the regional crisis shows no sign of de-escalation, with attacks expanding from military targets to critical civilian infrastructure amid stark new threats from Washington.
On Friday, cross-border exchanges of fire continued between Iran, Israel and the United States, just days after the war entered its sixth week. Warnings of incoming missile strikes were activated across Israel, Bahrain and Kuwait, even as US and Israeli officials have repeatedly claimed Iran’s core military capabilities have nearly been eliminated. Local Iranian witnesses also confirmed fresh airstrikes hit areas within and around Tehran and the central Iranian city of Isfahan.
US President Donald Trump has ramped up aggressive rhetoric in recent days as diplomatic negotiations with Iran have stalled with little to no progress. “The US military hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran,” Trump posted on social media late Thursday. “Bridges next, then electric power plants.”
Alongside the statement, Trump shared footage of a US airstrike on Tehran’s under-construction B1 bridge, a critical planned arterial traffic route that was scheduled to open to the public later this year. Iran’s state media reported the attack left eight civilians dead and another 95 injured.
But Iranian officials have refused to back down, even in the face of threats to civilian infrastructure. “Striking civilian structures, including unfinished bridges, will not compel Iranians to surrender,” Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said in response to the attack.
Iran’s armed forces have vowed to retaliate with even greater force, promising future attacks will be “more crushing, broader and more devastating”. Iran’s Fars news agency later published a list of potential target bridges across Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan — all nations that host US military facilities on their territory.
In a separate development, Iran’s Tasnim news agency, citing the Revolutionary Guards navy command, reported that Iranian forces targeted US tech giant Oracle’s data center in Dubai on Thursday. The Dubai Media Office quickly dismissed the claim as unfounded “fake news”. The Revolutionary Guards have previously warned that major US technology firms would be added to the target list if tensions with Washington escalate, noting more than a dozen US companies are considered valid potential targets.
The conflict has also drawn in other regional actors, with Yemen’s Houthi militia announcing Thursday it had launched its fourth attack on Israel, firing a barrage of ballistic missiles toward targets in Tel Aviv, expanding its direct involvement in the escalating regional conflict.
The war began on February 28, when US and Israeli forces launched a preemptive large-scale attack on Iran. Tehran responded with its own strikes against Israel and Gulf states hosting US military installations. Joint US-Israeli airstrikes across Iran and separate Israeli attacks in Lebanon have so far killed thousands of people and displaced millions across the Middle East.
Beyond the immediate human cost, the conflict has severely disrupted global commerce, with the Strait of Hormuz — one of the world’s most critical chokepoints for global energy trade — effectively closed to commercial shipping. This disruption has sent shockwaves through global financial markets, leaving investors scrambling to assess the long-term risks of the prolonged crisis.
“The key question in all investors’ minds is, ‘When is this going to be over?’” said Russel Chesler, head of investments and capital markets at VanEck Australia.
International efforts to resolve the closure of the strait have so far failed to yield concrete results. The United Kingdom chaired a virtual meeting of roughly 40 nations on Thursday to discuss pathways to restore freedom of navigation through the waterway, but the meeting concluded without any binding or specific agreements.
Trump struck a defiant tone on Friday, claiming the US could reopen the strait unilaterally with a small amount of additional time. “With a little more time, we can easily open the Hormuz Strait, take the oil, and make a fortune,” he wrote on social media.
Iran has put forward an alternative framework for controlling access to the strait, announcing it is drafting a new transit protocol with neighboring Oman that would require all commercial ships to obtain official permits and licenses before passing through the waterway.
Bahrain has submitted a draft United Nations Security Council resolution that would authorize the use of military force to guarantee free transit through the strait. The US-backed proposal has deepened divisions among Security Council members, forcing a delay to the scheduled vote on the measure.
The UAE’s Minister of State Khalifa Shaheen Al Marar said in an interview Thursday that his country is prepared to contribute to international efforts to secure maritime routes through the strait amid ongoing tensions.
However, French President Emmanuel Macron pushed back against the idea that military force could successfully reopen the strait, calling the expectation unrealistic. A large-scale military operation “would take an infinite amount of time and would expose anyone passing through the strait to coastal threats from Revolutionary Guards”, Macron noted. He added that the reopening of the strait “can only be done in coordination with Iran” through negotiations that would follow a ceasefire agreement.