Seoul Gazette - Trump says US 'not finished' as Iran widens attacks

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 toward 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.

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.

- Houthi threat -

Trump said he would "take care of" Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels if they followed through on a threat 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.

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 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.

- Cost of war -

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 Monday.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told US senators Tuesday that the war has cost the United States $37.5 billion so far, up from a previous estimate of nearly $29 billion in mid-May.

In Iran, Shahin, a 34-year-old embroiderer from Iranshahr, 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."

Despite the fighting, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said diplomatic exchanges with Washington through mediators were continuing.

Mediator Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called for restraint during a meeting with Iran's Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni.

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

Trump also sought to show US support for Lebanon, whose army has begun deploying in southern areas under a US-backed framework agreement with Israel aimed at extending state authority and disarming Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Meeting Aoun at the White House, Trump said Lebanon had been "hit hard" for decades but promised: "We're going to help it. We're going to help it a lot."

burs-ft/sst

R.Seon--SG