Israel bombs Tehran as Iranians taunt Trump (PHOTOS, VIDEOS)

Trump’s threats to blow up Iranian bridges and power plants will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz and would constitute a “clear war crime,” Democratic Senator Chris Murphy has said, urging Republican leaders to stop the US president.

Moscow has raised concerns that continued aggression against Iran could result in the geographical expansion of the conflict. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that the Middle East is “practically on fire,” and that tensions in the region continue to rise.

The IDF has reported the killing of an alleged Hamas weapons smuggler in an airstrike in central Gaza. The operative, Ali Ahmad Ali Amrain, was said to be supplying “numerous weapons” to the Palestinian militants, the Israeli military claims.

Israeli forces have attacked Iran’s largest petrochemical facility in the South Pars natural gas field, Defense Minister Israel Katz has announced, noting that the plant is responsible for about 50% of the country’s petrochemical production.

Iran’s Tasnim news agency has confirmed that plants in Asaluyeh, including Jam and Damavand, as well as companies providing electricity, water, and oxygen to the facilities were targeted by Israeli strikes.

FILE PHOTO. South Pars gas field in Asaluyeh on Iran's Persian Gulf coast on August 23, 2016. © Getty Images / Morteza Nikoubazl;  NurPhoto

The US operation to rescue an F-15 pilot may have been a cover to steal enriched uranium, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei has suggested, noting there are “many questions and uncertainties” about the operation.

“The area where the American pilot was claimed to be present in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province is a long way from the area where they attempted to land or wanted to land their forces in central Iran,” Baqaei said, insisting that “the possibility that this was a deception operation to steal enriched uranium should not be ignored at all.”

West Jerusalem is awaiting authorization from Washington to begin striking Iran’s energy facilities as the US and Israel aim to cripple the country’s economy, an Israeli official has told the Wall Street Journal.

The goal of the strikes is to make sure Tehran’s recovery from the war is as long and painful as possible, the official said.

EU chief Antonio Costa has slammed Trump’s threats to attack Iranian bridges and power plants, arguing in a post on X that targeting civilian infrastructure during war is “illegal and unacceptable.”

At the same time, Costa also criticized Tehran, urging it to “immediately put an end to its attacks against countries in the region” and to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, adding that “only a diplomatic solution” will settle the root causes of the Middle East conflict.

A US Marine Corps veteran who was violently removed from a Senate hearing is accusing Washington of waging war on Iran to serve elite financial interests and Israel, saying the conflict mirrors past US wars built on “lies” and profiteering rather than national security.

On Going Underground with Afshin Rattansi, Brian McGinnis – whose arm was broken during a confrontation with police and lawmakers while protesting the war, said he sees “no difference” between the current escalation and past wars built on disputed claims, accusing US leaders of “lying their way up to this point” and using the military for “nefarious reasons” tied to what he called the “Epstein class.”

Tehran has had a “very bitter experience of negotiating with the US” and cannot afford to “simply ignore” this fact, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei has said, stressing that “negotiation is in no way compatible with ultimatums, crimes, or threats to commit war crimes.”

Baqaei also dismissed the possibility of a ceasefire, arguing it would likely only be used by the US as “a short pause to replenish forces for committing crimes again.” He stressed that Iran must now focus on defending itself as the US continues to increase the volume of its attacks.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has condemned the US-Israeli bombing of the “MIT of Iran,” noting that the attack on Sarif University in Tehran follows previous strikes on other universities in the country.

“The aggressors will see our might,” the minister wrote on X.