WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said it is “getting to be decision time” on whether he will make a deal with Tehran or resume attacks as Iranian and Houthi threats against Americans in the Middle East continue to grow.
“I have a decision to make: Do I finish it off, which would be very easy to do, or do I make a deal? That’s all,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures.
“We don’t play games.”
Trump has suggested that US strikes on Iran could resume after the Nov 3 midterm elections and he has sent additional forces, including a third aircraft carrier group, toward the Persian Gulf.
“There won’t be a strike today,” he told reporters later on Oct 25 as he left the White House.
Officials warn the period between the election and the new Congress taking office could be particularly dangerous, with a negotiated deal seen as the most likely way to end the conflict.
The US is reducing diplomatic and military staffing in parts of the Middle East amid growing threats from Iran and the Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen. Houthis have been repeatedly striking the Riyadh airport, which reopened on Oct 25 for commercial flights.
The State Department had initially acknowledged departures of diplomats only from Saudi Arabia, but an American official told Bloomberg News on Oct 23 that staffing changes are taking place more broadly as Iran intensifies attacks on ships near the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran is now bracing itself for a fresh US bombing campaign around the midterms and is preparing to retaliate across the Middle East, including against Israel and the United Arab Emirates, according to a person familiar with Tehran’s thinking.
Tehran is starting to attack more ships in or near the Strait of Hormuz – and causing more severe damage – than earlier in the conflict as it deploys guided missiles rather than attack drones, according to shipping and maritime security officials.
“All indications point to a resumption of war and a major bombing campaign, although the timing remains uncertain,” said Aslı Aydıntaşbaş, an expert on the Middle East at the Brookings Institution.
While Trump appears geared toward potential strikes starting after the midterms, Israel, which launched the war against Iran alongside the US, has its own political calculations.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made an unannounced stop in Israel where he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just days ahead of the Israeli leader’s sensitive re-election bid.
The heated Israeli election – the first since the Hamas attacks in 2023 that sparked Netanyahu’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon – is on Oct 27.
If Netanyahu loses the election, his chief rival, Gadi Eisenkot, may not be as eager to begin his term restarting the Iran war. BLOOMBERG