The US Department of Defence, the Pentagon, has directed US Central Command to complete preparations for the possible resumption of large-scale military operations against Iran, while President Donald Trump considers the timing of any potential action without making a final decision on whether to carry it out, according to US officials cited by Axios.
No date set for possible strikes
The military instructions did not include a specific date for the start of any possible strikes. US and Israeli officials have assessed that operations could resume before the US midterm elections, and possibly before Israel’s elections, which are scheduled to take place a week earlier, but these estimates have not been accompanied by any publicly announced political decision.
NBC News reported that the US military had presented Trump with new options for carrying out large-scale combat operations inside Iran. It added that the president and his national security team had discussed the possibility of resuming operations before the US congressional midterm elections, scheduled for 3 November, before Trump later ruled out carrying them out before the elections.
According to Axios sources, the options under consideration could, if adopted, include extensive bombing of Iranian targets linked to the energy sector, infrastructure and nuclear facilities. The scope of the operations and the targets included in the plans remain hypothetical, as no decision has been made on carrying out any new military action.
Military options as negotiations stall
A Pentagon official said the armed forces’ task was to prepare options and provide the political leadership with operational readiness. The White House, for its part, confirmed that all practical options remained available to Trump. The military moves came as negotiations between Washington and Tehran stalled, while mediators awaited an Iranian response to a US counterproposal containing demands related to the nuclear issue.
Diplomatic coordination channels remained open through Qatari mediators as they awaited Iran’s position on the proposed initiatives. The US national security team held meetings at Camp David to discuss the war and other issues related to the Iranian file.
US-Israeli contacts over escalation
An Israeli official said the possibility of resuming military operations against Iran was among the issues discussed at the meetings. In the same context, Trump held a telephone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, their second in a matter of days.
The call came after Netanyahu met with his national security team to discuss the Iranian file and related military possibilities. Israeli officials said that, if decided upon, operations could resume in coordination between Washington and Tel Aviv, with the participation of the Israeli military. The officials warned that any new attack could prompt a broad Iranian response, potentially including the launch of ballistic missiles at Israel.
Lincoln carrier readiness and the effects of the lengthy deployment
In a related development concerning US military readiness, US War Secretary Pete Hegseth, while standing on the deck of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln on Wednesday, praised its crew members’ ability to endure a lengthy mission imposed by the war, amid questions about suicide attempts among sailors and shortages of food supplies aboard the carrier.
The US Navy said the carrier strike group had recorded eight suicide attempts among American sailors during its deployment. According to the Pentagon, the deployment lasted more than 260 consecutive days without stopping at any port, a record.
Hegseth accused journalists of trying to portray the crew of the Lincoln group as failures instead of highlighting what he described as their heroics in the conflict, and conveyed Trump’s appreciation to the group’s members for their achievements during the Iran war. Hegseth said the group’s operations had included sinking 64 Iranian warships, destroying 21 anti-ship cruise missiles, conducting 3693 combat sorties, launching 450 Tomahawk missiles and using 1.37 million pounds of munitions against Iran.
He added that the rapid pace of combat operations had resulted in no deaths or injuries among the group’s personnel, and that the carrier had suffered no aviation accidents. At the same time, he acknowledged challenges aboard the carrier, particularly with food supplies, saying that replenishing them “had not been easy”.
