Trump warns Iran: US will bomb infrastructure for every ship attack in Strait of Hormuz

[00:00:00]President Donald Trump has warned that the US will attack Iranian infrastructure every time Tehran targets ships in the Strait of Hormuz. So, in a post on social media, Trump said this, "From this point forward, anytime the Islamic Republic of Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, whether it be by missile, rocket, drone, or any other device or weapon, the United States will bomb and destroy one bridge or power plant, including those located next to or in the capital city of Tehran."

[00:00:31]Now, earlier, the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington was open to a diplomatic settlement with Iran, but warned it will continue its military strikes as long as Iran remains, quote, "a threat to global shipping."

[00:00:44]Now, Rubio made the comments at a meeting of foreign ministers in Manila.

[00:00:49]>> If you make a deal, if you sign on to an agreement, and then you violate the agreement, the agreement's no longer valid. That doesn't mean you can't have a future agreement, but ultimately that future agreement will have to be judged on whether or not you're complying with the conditions. And that deal called for the opening of the straits, free and fair navigation. In fact, they were supposed to put out a statement to that regard a week a week and a half ago. And instead, on the day they were supposed to put out that statement, instead of doing that, they targeted and blew up or hit a ship. So, we remain open to diplomacy. We remain open to working it out in a negotiated way, but right now they don't seem to be serious about that, and so we're going to continue to protect shipping. We think other countries should join us in that endeavor. We don't need them to, but they should because they're more impacted by it than we are. And at the same time, we are going to, when the opportunity presents itself, degrade their ability to target global shipping.

[00:01:38]>> All right, Al Jazeera's Rosiland Jordan joins us now live from the White House.

[00:01:41]So, Rosiland, the president, as I mentioned, posted on his Truth Social account. He also spoke to reporters just a moment ago. What's he saying?

[00:01:50]>> The US President Donald Trump is arguing that he does have the right to uh carry out such strikes uh given that Iran has been violating the memorandum of understanding. That's the 60-day long agreement between the US and Iran in which they were trying to find a permanent end to the war which the US and Israel began back on February 28th.

[00:02:13]The US president said that Iran is uh posing an existential security threat, my phrasing not his, to vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz and to countries in the region and that he has ordered the US military to hold the Iranian military to account. However, under the international law of war, it is a war crime to target a civilian infrastructure, bridges, power plants, water treatment facilities, anything that goes toward protecting and extending the life and welfare of a community. A military is not supposed to target those facilities on the face of facing international law punishment in an international law court. So, the US president has made this threat several times during the course of this war, at least three times in the past a couple of weeks by my count, but the president has not actually responded in kind. What we have seen over the past 11 days, however, have been US military strikes against Iranian military targets, which is considered acceptable in the course of armed conflict.

[00:03:26]>> So, Rosalind, the president is going to Dover Air Force Base to witness the caskets carrying the bodies of four American soldiers who were killed in this conflict returned to American soil.

[00:03:36]And I just wonder, I mean, are these deaths forcing the president to justify the war to the public? And I mean, is he attempting to justify the war to the public, especially now?

[00:03:47]>> We heard the US president say in response to a reporter's question that Americans are upset about the economic cost but that they support the war. I'm not quite sure which poll the president was quoting that he says has just been released but in a number of polls that have been conducted since the war began on February 28th, the percentage of Americans opposed to the war with Iran has risen and is somewhere between the 60s and 70% range. So I'm not quite sure whether this is a new poll that the president is quoting but that said what you have not seen in tandem with the overall opposition to the US led war against Iran is a wave of street protests or demonstrations similar to what we might have seen during the course of the war against Iraq over that 20-year period. We saw notable tens of thousands of people filling the streets in the United States over various points as well as that million-person march in London at the beginning of the war in 2003. You haven't seen that kind of outpouring or demonstration of opposition to the war in the US in this conflict. It's simply turning up in opinion polls.

[00:05:06]>> All right, that was just here is Rosalind Jordan for us there on the North Lawn of the White House.

[00:05:10]Rosalind, thank you.