Iran on Thursday threatened “crushing” attacks on the US and Israel, firing missiles at the Jewish state, after US President Donald Trump vowed to bomb the Islamic Republic “back to the Stone Ages.”

The war, which erupted more than a month ago with US-Israeli strikes on Iran, has spread throughout the Middle East and roiled the global economy, impacting hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

In a prime-time White House address Wednesday night, Trump said the US was “very close” to achieving its objectives but warned attacks would intensify if Iran did not reach a negotiated settlement.

“Over the next two to three weeks, we are going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong,” Trump said in a 19-minute speech delivered in front of American flags.

In some of the first major strikes since Trump’s speech, the key B1 highway bridge linking Iran’s capital Tehran to the western city of Karaj was hit Thursday by airstrikes, according to Fars news, which said several were injured in the attack. The B1 bridge is considered the Middle East’s highest bridge and was inaugurated earlier this year, Fars added.

It was not immediately clear which of the US or Israeli militaries were behind the strike.

Iran had launched several missiles overnight and on Thursday morning, pressing Israeli air defenses into action in the country’s center and north. Police responded to “several” impact sites, as four people were reportedly lightly injured in the Tel Aviv area.

The Iranian military command center Khatam Al-Anbiya put out a statement carried on state TV warning the US and Israel to expect “more crushing, broader, and more destructive actions.”

“With trust in Almighty God, this war will continue until your humiliation, disgrace, permanent and certain regret, and surrender,” said the statement.

The latest attacks came as Jewish Israelis were celebrating Passover, which some were forced to do underground.

“This is not my first choice,” said a writer who gave his name as Jeffrey, at a holiday Seder organized in a bunker in Tel Aviv.

“But at least in the shelter, we can sit here and just ride it out,” he added.

‘Resist until the end’

Trump has recently raised the possibility of a deal to end the war, which has pushed up fuel prices in the US and around the world and pushed down his approval ratings.

He said talks could be possible with Iran’s new leadership, which he described as “less radical and much more reasonable” than their predecessors.

But Tehran has dismissed Washington’s ceasefire overtures, describing US demands to end the conflict as “maximalist and irrational.”

“Messages have been received through intermediaries, including Pakistan, but there is no direct negotiation with the US,” said Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei, quoted by the ISNA news agency on Thursday.

Trump warned that if no agreement with Tehran was struck, Washington had “our eyes on key targets, including the country’s electric generating plants.”

Pro-government Iranians voiced defiance as they marched in Tehran at the funeral of a Revolutionary Guards naval commander killed in an Israeli strike.

“This war has lasted a month. However long it takes, we will continue,” said Moussa Nowruzi, a 57-year-old pensioner. “We will resist until the end.”

The country’s health ministry said the Pasteur Institute of Iran, a century-old medical center in Tehran, had been extensively damaged in a strike.

In Lebanon, Hezbollah said its fighters launched drones and rockets at northern Israel on Thursday, with the Israeli military’s Home Front Command saying air raid sirens were activated.

A day earlier, Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander, two sources told AFP, in a Beirut strike that the Lebanese health ministry said killed seven people.

Authorities in Lebanon say Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,300 people in the country since the war erupted between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah on March 2. The tallies do not differentiate between combatants and civilians, and Israel has said it has killed over 850 Hezbollah fighters over the same period.

Iranian steel troubles

Meanwhile, Iran’s two largest steel plants have been forced out of action by several waves of US and Israeli attacks, the companies have said.

“Our initial estimate is that restarting these units will take at least six months and up to one year,” Mehran Pakbin, deputy head of operations at the Khuzestan Steel Company, was quoted as saying by the Mizan Online website on Thursday.

Mobarakeh Steel Company in the central province of Isfahan said that its “production lines have completely shut down following the high volume of attacks.”

Both plants have suffered repeated strikes since last week.

“All modules and steelmaking furnaces of this industrial complex have been damaged,” Pakbin was quoted by Mizan as saying.

Mobarakeh Steel said late Wednesday on its website that after the attacks, “continuation of operations is not possible.”

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have launched missile and drone strikes on industrial areas across the region and Israel in retaliation for the attacks on the steel plants.

The Guards also threatened further retaliation if such attacks happened again.

Steel is a strategically important material used in industrial and military production, including missiles, drones and ships.

‘Oxygen for volatility’

The conflict has drawn in Gulf countries once seen as a safe haven in a volatile region, with air defenses in the United Arab Emirates responding to missile and drone threats Thursday.

Trump vowed the United States would not allow allies in the region — Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain — to “get hurt or fail in any way, shape or form.”

The war has highlighted the importance of the Strait of Hormuz, a shipping lane through which one-fifth of the world’s oil usually passes.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have vowed to keep it shut to the country’s “enemies,” while Trump has made reopening it a condition for a ceasefire.

China is a major importer of oil through the vital waterway and the foreign ministry in Beijing blamed the United States and Israel for being the “root cause” of disruption.

Britain was to lead a summit of 35 countries on Thursday to discuss how to restore freedom of navigation in the strait.

Trump’s speech did nothing to reassure markets, as oil prices spiked and stocks tumbled.

The World Bank’s Managing Director Paschal Donohoe told AFP his institution was “extremely concerned” about the war’s impact on inflation, jobs and food security.

The economic impact is being felt around the globe, with airlines in China saying they will hike fuel surcharges and Malaysian civil servants being asked to work from home.

Even the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is feeling the impact, with the government saying “external conditions beyond our control” had forced a hike in fuel prices.

AFP reporters in the capital Thimphu saw long queues at filling stations Thursday, with shortages hitting the landlocked nation of around 800,000 people.

“I don’t know what to say. It’s not like our government is responsible, they are trying their best despite the war in the Middle East and price hike in India,” said Karma Kalden, 40, a Thimphu resident. “We are helpless.”

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Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps IRGC

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