President Donald Trump said the United States was far from finished with Iran and warned the next US military target could be an underground nuclear complex known as Pickaxe Mountain. Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth estimated the cost of the Iran war at $37.5 billion.

“We’ll be hitting that area pretty soon, and very heavily,” Trump said, adding that he would not normally announce targets but “there’s not a thing they can do about it.”

Trump estimated it would take Iran more than 20 years to rebuild from current damage, addressing reporters during a White House meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun.

“If we left right now, it would take Iran 20, 25 years to rebuild. Okay, and we’re not finished at all…we’re not leaving right now.”

Iran stepped up its strikes in the Middle East, two weeks after its war with the United States resumed, with Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain coming under attack.

Meanwhile, US Central Command said it has begun striking military targets in Iran for the “11th consecutive night,” as attacks in the Middle East war intensify.

“The strikes are designed to continue degrading Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz,” CENTCOM said in a post on X, adding strikes began at 2300 GMT.

Iran threatened reprisals, with the Khatam Al-Anbiya military command saying it would “consider it as an expansion of war in the region” if such an attack were carried out, threatening strikes on “all the interests of America, the allies and supporters”, state-run broadcaster IRIB reported.

The warning came as Tehran broadened its offensive against US-allied Gulf states after its Houthi allies threatened to blockade Saudi ports.

In Washington, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Iran war has cost the country $37.5 billion so far, up from a previous estimate of nearly $29 billion in mid-May.

“The estimate we have as of today is $37.5bn,” Hegseth testified during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing at which he defended a request for some $67bn in supplemental funding for the Pentagon.

Hegseth and General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress the funding request is “urgent” and “necessary” to pay the Pentagon’s costs for the Iran war through the end of September.

But Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen challenged that assessment, saying Hegseth still has $75bn available in unspent funding.

Similarly, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Southeast Asian foreign ministers on Wednesday that Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz would set a dangerous precedent with repercussions beyond the Middle East.

The secretary of state added that the United States remains “open” to diplomacy with Iran but that Tehran is not “serious”.

“The United States remains open and willing to engage in positive and constructive negotiations and discussions, provided that the commitments made are honored,” he said.

“The problem we are currently facing is that they are not taking the negotiations seriously,” Rubio said. “If they are serious, we will be too. If they are not, then we will do what is necessary to protect our interests and those of our allies.”

Rubio’s remarks came as the region is grappling with a series of overlapping claims by China and ASEAN member states in the South China Sea, another crucial maritime route for global trade.

In contrast, the foreign ministers of the ASEAN countries expressed their deep concern over the renewed fighting in the Middle East, while Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called for restraint from all warring sides during a meeting with Iran’s Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni on Tuesday. (AFP)