Trump threatens to 'unleash hell' after Iran said it would target a second major oil route - RECAP

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: 'The president’s preference is always peace. There does not need to be any more death and destruction.

'But if Iran fails to accept the reality of the current moment, if they fail to understand that they have been defeated militarily and will continue to be, president Trump will ensure they are hit harder than they have ever been hit before.

She added: 'President Trump does not bluff, and he is prepared to unleash hell. Iran should not miscalculate again. Their last miscalculation cost them their senior leadership, their navy, their air force and their air defence systems.

'Any violence beyond this point will be because the Iranian regime refuses to understand they have already been defeated and refuse to come to a deal.'

Iran has warned it will strike USS Abraham Lincoln, one of the world's biggest aircraft carriers, if it falls within range of its missiles.

The threat comes after a large-scale missile attack failed to hit the vessel.

Footage has emerged of the moment Iran launched a series of shore-to-sea cruise missiles at the Lincoln carrier, which was deployed to the Middle East to support Operation Epic Fury.

Speaking in the White House yesterday, Donald Trump said: 'They shot 100 missiles at one of our aircraft carriers, one of the biggest ships in the world, actually. And of 101 missiles shot, every single one of them was knocked down.'

But Iranian Navy commander Shahram Irani warned the warship was under constant surveillance ahead of another possible attack.

'The USS Abraham Lincoln carrier is under constant Iranian monitoring and will be targeted as soon as it comes within range of missile systems,' he said, according to the SNN news agency.

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Trump tonight claimed he had 'no choice' but to go to war with Iran, claiming the possibility of the nation gaining nuclear weapons was a 'cancer'.

He added that he thought the shock to financial system caused by the was was going to be 'much worse'.

The US leader said: 'I thought it would be much worse. I thought that the energy prices, the oil prices would go up higher. I thought the stock market would go somewhat lower.

'But it didn’t matter to me, short term. What we had to do is get rid of the cancer. We had to cut out the cancer and the cancer was Iran with a nuclear weapon'.

Donald Trump has claimed at a Republican fundraising event that Iran want to 'make a deal so badly', but that they are worried that 'they'll be killed by their own people'.

He said: 'There's never been a head of a country that wanted that job less than being the head of Iran'.

Ophir Falk, Benjamin Netanyahu's foreign policy adviser, expressed his lack of faith in Iran's sincerity at the negotiating table.

Speaking to CNN, he said: 'Well, Iran always lies. We’ve learned that they always lie'.

The US has claimed discussions with Iran are ongoing, while senior leadership of the Middle East nation have strongly denied this.

Falk said Israel's main goal with the ongoing war in the Middle East was to 'remove the existential threat posed by this ayatollah regime'.

He said there were three ways to achieve this - removing the regime itself, severely weakening Iran's military capabilities, or going through diplomatic channels.

The foreign policy adviser said he did not see these options as mutually exclusive: 'To the contrary, we can do all three at once, and that’s what we’re doing now'.

Australia has banned visitors from Iran, claiming the ongoing war in the Middle East has increased the risk they would refuse to go home after their short-term visas expire.

For the next six months people travelling on Iranian passports will be barred from visiting Australia for tourism or work, the Home Affairs department said.

'The conflict in Iran has increased the risk that some temporary visa holders may be unable or unlikely to depart Australia when their visas expire,' it said in a statement.

Some exceptions would be made on a case-by-case basis, the department added, such as for the parents of Australian citizens.

'There are many visitor visas which were issued before the conflict in Iran which may not have been issued if they were applied for now', Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said.

'Decisions about permanent stays in Australia should be deliberate decisions of the government, not a random consequence of who booked a holiday.'

More than 85,000 Australian residents were born in Iran, according to government figures, with vibrant diaspora communities found in major cities such as Sydney and Melbourne.

Bahrain's interior ministry said an Iranian attack caused a fire to break out in Muharraq Governorate tonight.

While a fire was set, no one was injured, the ministry said.