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President Trump says he is weighing whether to resume full-scale attacks on Iran and has a “big decision” to make.
Getting into it: In an interview with Axios, Trump “I have a big decision coming up. Do I want to go in and annihilate them or do I not? It’s a big decision. Anything could happen with me,” Trump said. He would not say whether he plans to decide before or after the November midterms.
His next move will likely be shaped by a meeting Tuesday with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. Any return to major combat would need their buy-in, and Trump already backed off once in early August after Saudi Arabia and Qatar warned that Iran would retaliate by hitting Saudi oil and gas facilities.
Since holding off in August, the administration has shifted to applying pressure short of all-out war, suspending talks with Tehran, rolling out new sanctions, keeping a naval blockade on Iranian ports, and pouring military effort into getting tankers back through the Strait of Hormuz. Traffic has picked up but is still below where it was before the war, and US officials say Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have ordered troop levels in the region held steady through the end of the year in case fighting resumes.
Some of those officials say the current standoff cannot last much longer, with one telling Axios, “At some point, you have to decide what is the endgame.” Trump, meanwhile, claimed the blockade has completely cut off Iran’s oil exports and said Tehran is in direct contact with Washington and still wants a deal.
The costs are piling up on both fronts. Iran reportedly shot down two US MQ-1 Predator drones in recent days, and a Congressional Budget Office report released this week put US losses at 24 or more MQ-9 Reapers since the war started, roughly $720 million worth. At home, AAA data shows the national gas average jumped from $4.31 to $4.43 in four days, and diesel climbed 42 cents in a week, though Trump told a North Carolina rally Wednesday that higher prices are a “very inexpensive price to pay” for the war.
Iran, for its part, is not budging on the strait. “Our fighters will not open the Strait of Hormuz until the criminal Trump and the bloodthirsty Netanyahu are pulled down from the seat of power, and this is the first stage of the Iranian nation’s revenge,” said Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, a political adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader.
This all comes as the State Department confirmed Iran’s core delegation, including its president, will still be allowed into New York for the General Assembly next week, though under travel restrictions.
