US President Donald Trump has reportedly met with his top national security team at the White House over plans for a massive new offensive against Iran
Donald Trump is reportedly planning a massive new offensive in Iran after being rushed to a situation room meeting.
The US President said the fragile ceasefire with Iran was over last week as he lashed out at its leaders – calling them “scum” – which has been followed by missile strikes from both sides in the region over the past few days.
A naval blockade was imposed on Iran today and airstrikes have intensified in retaliation for Tehran’s attacks on ships trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. The American strikes hit an Iranian army barracks, killed at least seven troops and wounded more than 260 people across the country, Iranian officials said.
And now it is alleged the US is ready to further up the ante with Trump discussing a massive offensive in Iran that will be more far reaching than the current strikes around the Strait of Hormuz, three sources told Axios.
He is reported to have talked over plans in the situation room, used for intelligence meetings in the West Wing of the White House, with his top national security team on Tuesday.
His vice president JD Vance was there, as were Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen Dan Caine, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, White House envoy Steve Witkoff and other senior officials, it is alleged.
And the plan on the table was for much more powerful strikes on strategic targets in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz.
It comes as Trump also told Fox News that the US would hit Iran “hard” over the coming three days – and that there would be even wider strikes after that.
“Next week, it gets really bad for them because next week comes the power plants,” Trump said. “Next week comes the bridges. We’re gonna knock out all their power plants. We’re gonna knock out all their bridges unless they get to the table and negotiate.”
Already days of back-and-forth strikes by the US and Iran across the Middle East – and renewed threats to the waterway crucial to global energy supplies – have shredded the interim deal to end the conflict.
The US first imposed a blockade of Iranian ports in April and then lifted it last month after signing the interim deal that paused the fighting and set a 60-day period for negotiations over issues such as Iran’s nuclear program. Those talks have stalled as fighting over the Strait of Hormuz has intensified.
While Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened today to halt all energy exports from the Middle East over the blockade. “The export of oil and gas from the region will be either for everyone or for no one,” it said.
