The president gathered his national security team to discuss a wider offensive targeting Iran’s strategic assets. The strikes on coastal defenses were just the beginning.
President Trump held a Situation Room meeting on July 15 to discuss plans for a massive new offensive in Iran that would be wider in scope than the current campaign around the Strait of Hormuz, according to three sources with knowledge of the meeting.
The shift in strategy is significant. Until now, US strikes have focused on Iranian coastal defense systems, missile and drone sites, and naval capabilities, military targets directly related to the struggle for control of the Strait of Hormuz. The planned new phase would target Iran’s strategic assets: infrastructure that underpins the regime’s ability to function.
Axios reported that the new offensive would aim to force the Iranian regime to capitulate on key issues, including the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and the future of Iran’s nuclear program. Trump has already threatened to target bridges and power plants if Iran does not agree to a deal within a set timeframe.
The Situation Room meeting reflects a war that is expanding rather than winding down. Trump announced he was dropping plans to collect a 20 percent fee on ships passing through the strait, a concession to Gulf allies who offered investment deals instead, but simultaneously reinstated the naval blockade of Iranian ports and authorized continued strikes. The message is that the United States is willing to negotiate on tactics but not on the strategic objective: forcing Iran to submit.
The scale of the planned offensive raises questions that the administration has not answered. A wider campaign against strategic infrastructure would inevitably cause significant civilian harm. Iran’s power plants, bridges, and industrial facilities are located in or near populated areas. International humanitarian law prohibits attacks on civilian infrastructure that are not justified by military necessity.
Iran has already warned that any attack on its civilian sites would result in retaliation against “all infrastructure in the region”, a threat that could include the oil and gas infrastructure of Gulf states hosting US bases. The risk of a broader regional war, drawing in Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE, and possibly Saudi Arabia, has never been higher.
The meeting also underscores the absence of a diplomatic off-ramp. The June 17 Memorandum of Understanding that briefly paused hostilities collapsed when Trump declared it “over” on July 8. Since then, both sides have exchanged fire daily. Iran launched roughly 50 projectiles at US allies on July 14-15 alone. The United States has conducted strikes across multiple consecutive nights.
Trump told reporters that more US strikes were coming in the next few days and that bridges and power plants could be targeted by next week unless negotiations resume. But there are no negotiations. There is only the Situation Room, and the planning for what comes next.