'Bridges gone in an hour': Trump threatens to flatten Iran's civilian infrastructure

US President Donald Trump, who halted airstrikes against Iran on July 24 and opened back-channel talks, warned Tuesday that he would destroy bridges, power plants and other civilian infrastructure if Tehran fails to reach a deal.

Speaking by phone with Fox News that morning, Trump said Iran had not publicly acknowledged that nuclear issues were on the table — but insisted they were. "Iran will come out and say they haven't discussed nuclear, but that's all we discuss," he said. "Because they will never have a nuclear weapon, and they know that."

Trump said the two sides had been having "very good talks" and that Washington was negotiating from a position of strength. "They know that if there's no deal, I'm going to do it," he warned. "The bridges will literally be gone in less than an hour. Most of the bridges, the major bridges, will all be gone within two hours, and the power plants will be gone within a day."

He added that he would prefer to avoid such strikes, noting that power plants are the hardest structures to build and bridges take the longest to construct. Trump had made similar threats against Iranian civilian infrastructure on multiple occasions before the ceasefire MOU was signed last month.

Trump said he would not target Iran's seawater desalination facilities, however. "The people will be hurt," he said. "I don't want to do that."

The interview also exposed fresh friction with Israel over Trump's push for a ceasefire with Iran. Reports emerged that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu planned to visit the White House that day to share intelligence with Trump about activity at Gachigan Mountain — a site Trump had previously threatened to strike.

Trump pushed back sharply. "Bibi doesn't have to tell me that. Bibi says that because he wants me to stay involved," he said. "Why does he have to tell the whole world instead of just telling me?"

Trump added that he already knew exactly what was happening at Gachigan Mountain. "That's not a big problem," he said. "We've taken out their nuclear facilities. If there's no deal, we'll have to take out Gachigan Mountain too."

Gachigan Mountain is suspected to be a site where Iran relocated nuclear facilities. Netanyahu, who opposes a ceasefire, appeared to be planning to share the intelligence with Trump to press the case for further strikes and discourage a peace deal. By leaking that plan to the media first, Netanyahu seemed to be trying to build public pressure against a ceasefire — a move Trump read as a political maneuver, prompting his visible irritation.

"Frankly, if I weren't president of the United States, Israel wouldn't exist today," Trump also said — a remark he had made to reporters on Monday as well.

On tariffs, Trump addressed the Supreme Court's recent narrow ruling against his Section 301-based levies on 60 countries tied to forced-labor import restrictions. "It's a shame that within less than an hour of a very close Supreme Court loss, I have to go a harder route," he said, while insisting he had other tools to achieve the same result. "It's a little more cumbersome, but tariffs have brought wealth to the United States."

South Korea was hit with a 12.5% tariff under the forced-labor tariff package the Trump administration announced Thursday, alongside Japan, the UAE and others. The administration is also investigating 16 economic entities for potential "overproduction tariffs" — a probe that includes South Korea.