US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that countries that have not joined the West Asia war but are struggling with fuel shortages should "go get your own oil" in the Strait of Hormuz.
In a Truth Social post, Trump said countries "that refused to get involved" should "build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT," adding that the United States would not help them.
"The USA won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren't there for us. Iran has been, essentially, decimated. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil!," he wrote.
Trump also lashed out at France, saying it had been 'very unhelpful' in the war. "The Country of France wouldn't let planes headed to Israel, loaded up with military supplies, fly over French territory. France has been VERY UNHELPFUL with respect to the 'Butcher of Iran, who has been successfully eliminated!" he wrote.
Meanwhile, Iranian media reported Tuesday a wave of US-Israeli strikes hit military bases, a cancer drug plant and a religious site, after Trump threatened to destroy the country's oil wells and power grid.
Video footage verified by AFP showed at least two massive explosions and columns of smoke in Isfahan, central Iran. State media reported the Grand Husseiniya, a Shia religious centre, was damaged in Zanjan in the northwest.
The Iranian government also said airstrikes had hit a pharmaceutical plant producing cancer drugs and anaesthetics, wile a health ministry official told the ISNA news agency that a bombing had left a desalination plant on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz "completely out of service."
It was not clear when the reported strike on the desalination plant had taken place, but Iran has vowed throughout the month-old conflict to match strikes on its infrastructure with raids on its neighbours.
Desalinated water provides 42 percent of drinking water in the United Arab Emirates, 70 percent in Saudi Arabia, 86 percent in Oman and 90 percent in Kuwait.
Any attack on civilian drinking water could trigger a major escalation and draw Iran's neighbours into the fray, analysts warn, but Trump did not hold back in his latest threat, apparently designed to pressure Iran to capitulate and accept a US-proposed settlement.