Thousands of American paratroopers are beginning to land in the Middle East as Donald Trump warned he could blow up crucial infrastructure in Iran if no deal is reached to end the war.

The U.S. Army’s elite 82nd Airborne Division have started arriving in the Middle East as President Donald Trump weighs his next steps in the war against Iran.

The move would expand options to include ​the deployment of forces inside Iranian territory.

The US President wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform that he was considering ‘blowing up and completely obliterating’ Iran’s power plants and oil wells.

Such a move would likely exacerbate the global energy crisis and make it considerably more difficult for Iranians to rebuild after the war, even if the current regime was to crumble.

Trump also threatened to destroy ‘all desalinization plants’, facilities that perform the vital work of making saltwater drinkable in a region with few freshwater resources.

He wrote: ‘This will be in retribution for our many soldiers, and others, that Iran has butchered and killed over the old Regime’s 47 year “Reign of Terror.”’

It is not the first time he has threatened Iran’s power infrastructure – earlier this month, he said he would take the action within 48 hours if the Strait of Hormuz was not opened to shipping.

However, Trump later backed down and said he would give Tehran a five-day extension after ‘constructive’ and ‘productive’ talks.

That deadline also later expired without any further action.

Earlier today, the president again changed his mind about what he wants from the war in Iran, saying his ‘favourite thing is to take the oil’ a month on from the opening strikes.

Trump has previously claimed he started the war with Israel at the end of March to encourage regime change and to destroy any chance of Tehran building a nuclear weapon.

But in a new interview with the Financial Times, he compared his plans in Iran to the operation in Venezuela at the start of the year, which ended with the US controlling its oil industry.

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