US President Donald Trump said he would expand military strikes on Iran to power plants and bridges unless Tehran returned to negotiations, warning in a Fox News interview broadcast on Tuesday that attacks would intensify next week.
"We're going to hit them very hard tonight," Trump said. "We're going to hit them hard tomorrow night. We're gonna hit them really hard the night after."
"Next week it gets really bad for them because next week comes the power plants," he said. "Next week comes the bridges. We're gonna knock out all their power plants. We're going to knock out all their bridges unless they get to the table and negotiate."
Trump said US representatives had recently spoken with Iranian negotiators but said Tehran had repeatedly broken agreements.
"They want to make a deal. But every time they make a deal, they break it," he said.
"You better make a deal. You're not going to have anybody left," Trump added, saying the United States was taking care to limit harm to civilians.
He also said Iran's military capabilities had been significantly weakened but retained some ability to fight back.
"They have some fight left, but they don't have much," he said.
Trump added that the United States could quickly strike a nuclear site outside Tehran where new activity had been reported.
"We can hit that one very easily," he said. "It only takes a matter of minutes for us to do it and do major damage."
Ground campaign and Kharg Island
Trump declined to say whether the United States could launch a ground campaign in Iran but suggested he would not rule out the option entirely.
"I don't want to say that either, but I would say no," he said when asked by Fox News whether he was ruling out a limited ground campaign. "Sometimes you need a ground campaign, but we have other people that will do the ground campaign for us."
Trump said US forces had already struck Iran's Kharg Island three times but had deliberately avoided its oil facilities.
"I said, 'Hit everything but the oil,'" he said. "Leave that little area. Don't touch the oil because I don't want that in terms of the world economy."
Asked whether the United States could seize the island, Trump said: "If we degrade them far enough and deep enough back, I would do that."
Hormuz policy
Trump said he had abandoned plans to impose a 20% fee on cargo transiting the Strait of Hormuz, saying countries in the region had instead agreed to make major investments in the United States.
"I was going to charge a fee, but instead they'd rather spend a lot of money in the United States," he said.
He said the United States had reinstated a naval blockade on Iranian shipping and that its objectives, including keeping the Strait of Hormuz open, had largely been achieved, although commercial traffic through the waterway has fallen sharply.
"I think they're completed now, honestly," Trump said of the military campaign. "If we left right now, it would take them 20 years to rebuild what they have."
Iranian retaliation vows
Trump's remarks came as Iranian officials and lawmakers stepped up calls for retaliation following US strikes and the killing of former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
About 180 lawmakers said on Tuesday that Iran should treat its memorandum of understanding with the United States as terminated after Trump declared the agreement over.
They pledged to pursue retaliation for Khamenei's killing and called for a special parliamentary committee to review negotiations with Washington.
The lawmakers also backed legislation on the management of the Strait of Hormuz and voiced support for Iran's armed forces.
Iran's army said on Wednesday it would deliver a "decisive response" after a US strike on a barracks in Bampur near Iranshahr killed seven military personnel.
"The retaliation for the blood of the martyrs of this crime is certain and imminent," the army said.
Calls for military action
Manouchehr Mottaki, a former Iranian foreign minister who is now a member of parliament, called for a ground assault on a US military base in the region.
"My proposal is that we launch a ground attack on one of the US bases in the region, capture 100 Americans and bring them to Iran," Mottaki said.
Another lawmaker, Shahrokh Ramin, criticized a parliamentary proposal titled "Revenge against Trump," saying genuine retaliation would not come through legislation.
"Someone who wants to take revenge does not turn it into a law," Ramin said. "If we are truly seeking revenge, we take revenge, and the way to do it is not through legislation."
“The scope of this case is extensive, and more than 200 complaints have so far been filed with the provincial prosecutor's office,” Lorestan prosecutor Ali Hassanvand said.
Three of the channels' main operators had been identified and detained, Hassanvand said.
Police in Lorestan had announced a day earlier that Telegram channels were publishing citizens' private photos with "immoral" content to attract followers and, in some cases, extorting victims and their families by demanding cryptocurrency payments.
Fears over women's safety
Shargh newspaper reported that the channels had attracted tens of thousands of members by publishing women's photos alongside insults, defamatory content and extortion demands.
The newspaper cited social media posts alleging that five girls had died by suicide and another had been killed by her father after their images were circulated. Those reports have not been officially confirmed.
An unnamed women's rights activist in Lorestan told Shargh the incident had heightened fears among women in the province.
“You have to live here and know the families to understand the consequences,” the activist said. “Some women in our province have become so frightened that they have removed their photos even from domestic and foreign messaging apps. Publishing a woman's picture in our city could cost her life.”
Women's rights advocates have long warned that weak legal protections and the persistence of so-called honor killings leave women exposed to violence in parts of Iran.
Extortion spreads beyond Lorestan
Saeed Sozangar, a network security instructor, told Shargh the channels appeared to be motivated by extortion and revenge, warning that some victims' lives could be at risk.
He said similar networks had also been identified in the cities of Malayer, Bukan and Kermanshah, suggesting the activity extended beyond Lorestan.
A citizen who contacted Iran International said the channels copied publicly available profile pictures of women without mandatory hijab from social media accounts and reposted them with highly insulting captions. The source added that anonymous submission links encouraged users to send photos of other women.
Similar channels, according to the citizen, have also appeared in Khuzestan, Kermanshah, Hamedan and Tehran provinces.
Mahmoud Nabavian lost his position as the committee's first deputy chairman, while Ebrahim Rezaei was replaced as the committee's spokesperson, according to the committee's annual leadership vote.
Ebrahim Azizi was elected committee chairman, Abbas Moghtadaei and Amir Hayat-Moghaddam were chosen as first and second deputy chairmen, Hassan Ghashghavi was elected spokesperson, and Behnam Saeedi and Yaghoub Rezazadeh became the committee's secretaries.
Critics of US negotiations
Nabavian and Rezaei had emerged as two of parliament's most vocal opponents of negotiations with Washington during and after the conflict with the United States and Israel.
Nabavian repeatedly argued that any agreement with Washington would amount to an "absolute loss" for Iran and said the country's experience of negotiations had only brought "broken promises, deception and benefits for the enemy."
He also criticized Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
Earlier this month, Nabavian also vowed to oppose what he described as a "coup," accusing unnamed political rivals of trying to sideline hardline forces.
Rezaei also said Iran was not intimidated by what he described as threats from US President Donald Trump and that the country was "ready to fight any evil."
In a separate post, he praised the Revolutionary Guards for what he described as asserting Iran's authority over the Strait of Hormuz.
Leak controversy
Nabavian also came under scrutiny after reading excerpts on state television from what he described as secret correspondence from Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei on negotiations with the United States. The broadcast was cut off as he continued speaking.
Nabavian said Khamenei had repeatedly objected to the course of the talks and set conditions that were not reflected in the Iran-US memorandum of understanding, including securing compensation from the United States, preserving Iran's uranium enrichment program and maintaining exclusive Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz. He also said Khamenei wanted Iran to begin charging some ships to transit the waterway.
State broadcaster IRIB later said Nabavian's references to classified correspondence could warrant legal action. Ghalibaf adviser Amir Ebrahim Rasouli subsequently called on authorities to identify the source of what he described as confidential state information provided to Nabavian.
Parliament returns after months
The committee reshuffle came a day after parliament returned to session, with Deputy Speaker Hamidreza Hajibabaei presiding instead of Ghalibaf.
More than 250 lawmakers attended the session, during which legislators chanted slogans calling for revenge for the killing of former supreme leader Ali Khamenei and other senior officials killed in US and Israeli strikes.
Hardline lawmakers affiliated with the Paydari Front had spent months criticizing Ghalibaf for parliament's inactivity, accusing him of preventing lawmakers from meeting in order to avoid parliamentary action against negotiations with the United States. They also repeatedly called for Araghchi's resignation over the talks.
Ghalibaf's office said at the time that the suspension of parliamentary sessions had followed instructions from security authorities.
