President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that Iran has "taken too long to negotiate a deal" over the Mideast conflict and will now "have to pay the price," while Iran warned that any resumption of U.S. and Israeli air strikes would meet a "heavier" and "stronger" retaliation.
"Iran is all talk and no action," Trump said on Truth Social. "They've taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them, now they will have to pay the price."
In a phone interview with Fox News, Trump also suggested he may order new strikes on Iran's power plants and bridges.
"I may keep going," Trump said during the interview. "They had a chance to sign a deal and survive."
The president claimed Tehran has been "tapping the U.S. along" in peace talks that have ultimately made little progress.
During an interview later the same day, Trump said U.S. forces will continue striking Iran, one day after the United States launched strikes in southern Iran following the downing of a U.S. Army helicopter.
"We're going to hit them hard again today," he told reporters at the White House. "We're going to be attacking them and attacking them very hard."
The U.S. military reportedly hit about 20 targets in its strikes on Iran on Tuesday in response to the downing of the helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz. The targets included Iranian air defenses, radar sites and ground control stations, U.S. Central Command said in a statement on Tuesday.
In response to U.S. attacks and Trump's threats, Iranian Armed Forces spokesman Abolfazl Shekarchi said on Wednesday that Iran will respond to every threat from the United States "more severe, heavier, and stronger" than ever before.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Wednesday that Iran and the U.S. should move beyond "this state of neither war nor peace."
Speaking at an event commemorating late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, he noted that Iran must break free from a situation that is neither war nor peace, and said war is not in Iran's national interest.
But if "they seek to violate our land and our territory," Iran will never surrender and never retreat, he added.
Trump warns of new strikes on Iran over delayed talks, Iran vows stronger retaliation
Trump warns of new strikes on Iran over delayed talks, Iran vows stronger retaliation
For more than 1,000 years, Jingdezhen, the "porcelain capital" in east China's Jiangxi Province, has shaped how the world understands porcelain, with even discarded shards preserving a living tradition.
Weng Yanjun, president of the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Institute, reflected on the scale and challenge behind Jingdezhen's historic creations.
"When I look at this gigantic dragon jar, I couldn't help going back to 600 years ago, when the emperor had this order to create something bigger than ever before. The failure rate of the dragon jar is so high. It could be nine out of 10. Even making failure products like this takes courage, takes techniques and takes commitment," said Weng.
Those failed attempts, once discarded, now preserve the evidence of how Jingdezhen pursued perfection.
For more than 1,000 years, Jingdezhen's porcelain industry has endured through the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties (960-1911). What has survived is not only its porcelain, but also a living heritage of raw materials, workshops, kilns and specialized craftsmanship.
Those firings produced masterpieces as well as failures, with the discarded pieces forming another kind of archive.
At the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Institute, Weng told archaeology students that fragmented specimens sometimes provide more information than complete artifacts.
Weng leads the development of the world's first Ancient Ceramics Gene Bank, which extracts and catalogs the defining characteristics of each ceramic shard.
"For our institute alone, we have excavated more than 20 million pieces of shards for the past over 1,200 years. Among those shards, we do sorting, we do restoration, and we do scientific tests. And then we find, wow, a small shard can tell us much more information than even a whole piece," said Weng.
Using a standardized sample library and unified data framework, the project records each piece's shape, decoration, body material, glaze, color, firing marks and inscriptions, creating a valuable resource for authentication and research around the world.
"The whole city is a wonderful lab and space range makes Jingdezhen uniquely a wonderful example of how the handicraft ancient industry with porcelain as the focus survived even to today," Weng added.
Jingdezhen once helped establish benchmarks for how porcelain was made. Now, the gene bank is turning fragments into a language that can be read beyond the city. For French artist and researcher Yann Colleu, learning to read that language has also changed the way he creates.
"Since my childhood, my parents had these teapots, tea sets, plates and cups. I was very curious about the pattern, like the meaning, what was behind it? Actually when I discovered in Jingdezhen that it was a bat, because of 'fu' and 'fu' is fortune, but also you have the 'wufu,' like the five blessings. I was like a child with stars in the eyes, discovering the world for the first time," said Colleu, PhD candidate at Jingdezhen Ceramic University.
What once seemed abstract became part of Yann's own visual language. In his work, traditional Jingdezhen motifs and production scenes are reimagined through a contemporary, cross-cultural lens.
"Jingdezhen is a timeless city. The past, the present and even the future are tied together. This is one of illustration of 72 traditional steps developing during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). The difference is, instead of using Chinese characters, I use foreigners. I want to use the past to talk about the present and even the future with Jingdezhen," said Colleu.
The Jingdezhen Handicraft Porcelain Industry Sites were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List on Saturday. The inscription recognizes not just a single kiln or masterpiece, but an entire production system, from its archaeological remains and traditional craftsmanship to its industrial knowledge and global influence.
Porcelain shards preserve Jingdezhen’s timeless legacy
