Iran warns it would reduce Persian Gulf region buildings to rubble if U.S. attacks its infrastructure

Iran issued a direct warning to the United States on Thursday, saying it would reduce buildings in the Persian Gulf region to “rubble” if American forces attack Iranian infrastructure inside Iran, according to a report from The Washington Times.

The warning was presented in the context of continued U.S. operations, which the report described as attacks directed at Iran. Iran linked the scope and intensity of any response to whether the United States carries out strikes against Iranian domestic infrastructure, rather than focusing solely on developments in the Persian Gulf itself.

The statement described escalation in blunt terms, indicating that Iran would broaden its response to infrastructure-related targets outside its own borders if U.S. forces went after facilities inside Iran. The report did not specify which American actions were tied to the warning beyond characterizing U.S. attacks as ongoing.

The threatened focus on “buildings” in the Persian Gulf region raises the risk of disruption to civilian areas and regional services, particularly in states whose economies depend on maritime trade and energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz. Such infrastructure-focused threats can also complicate emergency planning for local authorities and operators of public facilities.

For U.S. and allied officials, the warning adds to the diplomatic and operational pressure around how strikes are framed and to what targets they are attributed. If Iran frames its response as retaliation for attacks on domestic infrastructure, it indicates a cause-and-effect threshold for escalation that could influence both communications and targeting decisions.

The report describes the warning as coming while the United States continues its attacks, placing the message in an active security environment rather than a retrospective complaint. That timing matters for regional stability because it suggests the warning is intended to affect near-term choices about whether and where strikes occur.

No further details about the specific communications, the formal channels used, or the particular infrastructure at issue were included in the report. Still, the explicit nature of Iran’s threatened response underscores how statements about infrastructure can quickly become part of operational risk assessments for governments and private-sector entities in the Persian Gulf.

Authorities in the region typically coordinate through security and maritime channels when tensions rise, especially where commercial shipping and power and water systems are concentrated. A public threat of reducing buildings to rubble is likely to increase concern about protective measures for civilian areas, while also raising the stakes for any subsequent exchange between Iran and U.S. forces.