US President Donald Trump on Wednesday warned that Iran would “pay the price” for stalled negotiations, saying that he may order fresh strikes on Iran’s power plants and bridges, as tensions again ratcheted up with an early-morning exchange of attacks after the downing of a US military helicopter the day before.

Iran has “taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them. Now they will have to pay the price!” Trump posted on Truth Social.

“Iran’s military is a complete and total mess. Much of it, like their navy and air force, doesn’t even exist anymore,” Trump insisted, despite Iran’s successful downing of an Apache attack helicopter, and only hours after Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan, all of which host US troops, came under Iranian fire.

“They have been completely defeated. Iran is all talk and no action. The bully of the Middle East is DEAD!” he declared.

“I may keep going [militarily],” he later said in comments in a phone interview cited by Fox News, which reported that Trump was “getting closer” to ordering strikes on Iran’s power plants and bridges.

“They had a chance to sign a deal and survive,” the US president added.

It was not clear what Trump’s comments would mean for Tehran. The comments again underlined the American leader’s whipsaw approach to the war, after he suggested on Monday that a deal to end the conflict could be reached in “two or three days.” Trump’s comments also came as an official with knowledge of the situation told Reuters that Qatari negotiators traveled to Tehran on Wednesday morning in an effort to finalize an agreement, after consultations with the United States.

Trump had initially downplayed the helicopter incident during a phone interview on Tuesday, saying it “wasn’t a big deal,” since “the pilot is fine.” But hours later, he posted that “the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack.”

Early Wednesday, US fighter jets targeted “air defense, ground control stations, and surveillance radar sites,” US Central Command said, in what it described as a  “a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression.”

CENTCOM later said the strikes hit Iranian air defenses, ground control stations and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces began launching self-defense strikes against Iran at 5 p.m. ET today at the Commander in Chief’s direction, in response to yesterday’s downing of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter. The mission is a proportional response to unjustified Iranian… — U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) June 9,........

© The Times of Israel