Iran's armed forces will target oil, gas, power and economic infrastructure across the region and block all oil exports if the United States carries out threats to strike Iranian infrastructure, the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters said in a statement, Imna reported on July 22.

The warning marks a sharp escalation in a 12-day exchange of strikes between Iran and the US that has centred on control of the Strait of Hormuz, after a memorandum of understanding meant to end the conflict collapsed over the fate of the waterway. It came in response to a threat by US President Donald Trump to bomb an Iranian bridge or power plant, including in Tehran, each time Iranian forces fire on a ship in the strait.

The Khatam al-Anbiya headquarters, which oversees Iran's key military and construction operations, said the strait remained closed and that any vessel wishing to pass must use a designated route under previously announced arrangements. Repeated US threats would result only in a widening of the war in the region and beyond, it said.

Majid Mousavi, head of the aerospace force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said Iran would retaliate against countries hosting US troops if its power stations were struck. "If our bridges and power plants are attacked, the power outage of the allies and hosts of the child killers is certain," Mousavi said in a statement.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf (pictured), Iran's parliament speaker and chief negotiator, said the equation of the war was clear, "either everyone or no one", and that the situation of the strait would not return to pre-war conditions. In a region where Iran was prevented from selling oil, no one would sell oil, he said.

Trump set out his threat in a post on social media. "From this point forward, any time the Islamic Republic of Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, whether it be by Missile, Rocket, Drone, or any other device or weapon, the United States will bomb and destroy ONE BRIDGE OR POWER PLANT, including those located next to, or in, the Capital City of Tehran," he wrote.

Trump had previously threatened to strike Iran's bridges and power stations, but the July 22 statement was more specific than his earlier warnings. An unnamed Iranian military source told the Tasnim news agency that Iran would strike infrastructure and bridges in the region, including energy facilities in which the US had interests, if Washington acted on the threat.

Iran claims sovereignty over the strait, arguing that the collapsed MoU gave it authority to manage the waterway, while the Trump administration has insisted the strait return to its pre-conflict status as an international free passage.