Trump Weighs Post-Midterm Iran Strike — SkimNews
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- Chris Murphy said on Oct. 28 that he and other lawmakers received a classified briefing on the administration's plan to restart U.S. military operations against Iran after the midterms; he called the short-duration plan “insane” and warned it would prolong the war and undermine U.S. security interests and rule of law.
- Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. told several Gulf Arab countries to prepare for a “short, intense military campaign” in Iran following the midterms.
- CNN reported that Trump had not made up his mind on post-midterms action but appeared to lean toward major action; U.S. Central Command and the Pentagon were developing a wide-ranging target list that included Iranian energy infrastructure, military sites and nuclear facilities.
- Trump told a Lubbock rally that audiences would “see Iran in a couple of weeks,” and he had also floated a possible attack while campaigning for Republicans in recent weeks.
- JD Vance, with Trump's approval, sent a letter to Mohsen Rezaei and other senior Iranian officials to test whether Washington and Tehran could find common ground and persuade Trump not to issue a final order for an attack; Trump publicly denied directing Vance to revive peace talks.
- Abbas Araghchi wrote in a Financial Times op-ed that Iran remains firmly committed to seeking a dignified peaceful resolution while fully prepared to defend itself, but said it has no trust in the U.S. administration's professed desire for peace.
- Sina Toossi said he increasingly believed some level of infrastructure warfare between the U.S./Israel and Iran, on a scale not yet seen, was inevitable, but warned that if fighting did not end quickly, destruction of critical regional energy infrastructure would worsen the energy crisis and likely push economies, including the U.S., into recession.
Why it matters: The post-midterms timetable puts Iran, Gulf Arab countries and U.S. officials at a decision point within weeks. Toossi warned that, if fighting did not end quickly, destruction of critical regional energy infrastructure would worsen the existing energy crisis and likely push economies, including the U.S., into recession.
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