Clashes Between The U.S. And Iran Continue Without Progress. Trump Says He’s ‘Losing Faith’ In Tehran
President Donald Trump said he is “losing faith” in Iran as the possibility of reaching a deal fades amid continued clashes between the countries.
Speaking during a Cabinet meeting on Friday, Trump said Tehran officials “do lie and do misrepresent.”
“We’ll be hitting them very hard,” Trump added after Iranian forces claimed they had targeted U.S. bases in Kuwait and Bahrain in retaliation for the latest wave of strikes from Washington.
Trump said Tehran conceded that the attacks that broke the days-long lull that began last Friday and asked the U.S. not to retaliate, but he approved of the strikes anyway. The Iranian revolutionary guard said three members were killed in attacks in the northwestern province of Zanjan.
Another report detailed that the economic consequences of the U.S.’s expanded military campaign against Iran are becoming increasingly visible, with widespread power outages, water shortages and disruptions to transportation and trade pushing the country deeper into crisis.
According to a report from The Washington Post, despite thousands of U.S. and Israeli airstrikes and a prolonged U.S. naval blockade, many Iranians experienced relatively limited day-to-day economic disruption for months.
That has changed in recent weeks after the Trump administration widened its list of military targets beyond conventional defense sites to include infrastructure considered vital to the country’s economy. The result has been growing shortages of electricity, fuel and water, along with mounting challenges for businesses that rely on functioning transportation and utility networks.
Analysts told The Washington Post that damaged infrastructure is slowing the movement of goods, increasing shipping costs and reducing factory and agricultural output, adding another layer of pressure to an economy already struggling under years of international sanctions.
According to the Institute for the Study of War, the United States has struck at least six bridges and tunnels around the strategic port city of Bandar Abbas. Iranian state-affiliated media have also reported damage to communications lines, a rail station, a desalination plant and railway infrastructure elsewhere in southern Iran.
The Trump administration has argued that some facilities qualify as legitimate military objectives because they are “dual use,” serving both civilian and military purposes. Though analysts say it remains unclear whether every recently targeted site meets that legal threshold.
