Trump says Iran set back decades, but US campaign not finished yet

Iran warned Bulgaria on Tuesday against allowing the United States to use its territory for military operations against Tehran after Sofia moved to station up to eight US tanker aircraft at an air base.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said any activity facilitating US attacks would amount to complicity in “aggression and war crimes.”

He urged Bulgaria not to become “an accomplice of aggressors and lawbreakers,” Iranian state media reported.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned Iran that Washington would respond to attacks on commercial shipping with strikes “10 times harder,” saying the US military was degrading Iranian capabilities further each night.

“Iran has been given every opportunity to negotiate, to show that they’re reasonable on the Strait of Hormuz,” Hegseth said. “But if they’re going to shoot at commercial shipping, then we’re going to hit them, as the president said, 10 times harder.”

Hegseth said President Donald Trump had “all the options necessary,” adding that Tehran could either return to negotiations or “deal with the War Department.”

“If they want to talk, they can talk,” he said. “Otherwise, they can deal with the War Department, and we’re prepared.”

US President Donald Trump said Iran was “desperate” to meet but that the United States had no interest in talks until Tehran was ready to engage meaningfully.

“They want to desperately meet, and until they’re ready to meet in a meaningful way, we have no interest,” Trump said on Tuesday.

“They cannot have a nuclear weapon, and they won’t have. They’re not going to. They have no chance of having a nuclear weapon,” Trump added.

At least five vessels, including several carrying Saudi oil, made U-turns before reaching the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Tuesday after Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis threatened to block Saudi-linked ships, CBS News reported, citing maritime tracking data.

The vessels included four tankers and a cargo ship. Two crude tankers had departed Saudi ports for China and Pakistan, while another laden oil or chemical tanker was traveling from Saudi Arabia to Oman.

An empty vehicle carrier traveling from Saudi Arabia to Sri Lanka and an empty crude tanker coming from Myanmar also reversed course, CBS said.

US President Donald Trump shared three Truth Social posts highlighting the executions of protesters Erfan Esfandiari, 18, and Gol-Mohammad Mohammadi, 23, who were executed on Sunday at Dastgerd Prison in the central Iranian city of Isfahan.

“The latest one of 52,000, plus, innocent protesters. Savages!!! When will the Democrats wake up??? President DJT,” Trump wrote above a post about Mohammadi’s execution.

Trump also reposted a message about Esfandiari's execution calling on people to “be their voice,” as well as an image of a tearful woman holding a sign reading “STOP KILLING US” against a backdrop featuring the Islamic Republic’s flag.