Click to see full-size image. (U.S. Air Force)
The United States and Israel have drawn up plans for renewed military strikes on Iran following the American midterm elections next November, The New York Times reported on October 21, citing U.S. officials and others briefed on the matter.
The plans reportedly envisage a short but intensive operation targeting Iranian energy infrastructure, nuclear facilities and the country’s missile and drone arsenals.
The U.S. and Israeli militaries have stepped up joint preparations, including flights over neighboring Iraq to rehearse strike maneuvers.
Officials cited by the newspaper said renewed strikes could severely damage Iran’s economy and force Tehran to make diplomatic concessions. The report noted, however, that U.S. President Donald Trump has not committed to authorizing further military action.
A separate report from NBC News revealed that the U.S. is also quietly reducing its troop presence at bases in Jordan, Qatar and Kuwait while cutting staffing at diplomatic missions across the Middle East amid threats from Iran.
Amid these developments, Trump said there were no negotiations with Tehran and indicated that developments in the conflict could come soon.
“We are not negotiating with” Iran, Trump told a reporter before boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews.
“Something one way or another will happen, fairly soon,” he continued. “Most people seem to think it’s after the election.”
In apparent response to recent escalation, a senior Iranian security official told the semi-official Fars News Agency that Tehran expects another U.S.-Israeli attack and considers Washington’s diplomatic efforts insincere.
The official warned that any renewed large-scale conflict involving the assassination of Iranian officials or the killing of civilians would lead Iran to consider U.S. political targets and the infrastructure of countries participating in the war “legitimate targets.”
Overall, it is clear that the U.S. and Israel will attack Iran again. Recent Hebrew media reports even revealed that dozens of Israeli warplanes have already flown close to the border of the Islamic Republic in the hope of provoking some response. Tehran is keeping its finger on the trigger and is guaranteed to strike back in the case of a new attack. One thing is sure this time, and that is that the U.S. and Israel have lost the element of surprise.
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Damasco, 22 oct (Prensa Latina) Fuerzas israelíes mataron a un civil sirio con discapacidad durante una incursión en la aldea de Jamla, en la provincia de Deraa, al sur de Siria, informó hoy la agencia estatal de noticias SANA.
The post Denuncian muerte de civil sirio discapacitado por disparos israelíes first appeared on Noticias Prensa Latina.
The US State Department has ordered some diplomats and family members to depart from its missions in Saudi Arabia and plans to withdraw family members from a number of other US missions in the region, US officials told Reuters.
The order came as attacks in Saudi Arabia killed at least one person and injured eight others at a civilian airport in Dammam and two people were killed in a drone attack on an oil field.
State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a post on X that the department ordered the departure of “non-emergency US government employees and their family members in Saudi Arabia only” amid attacks by the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen on civilian targets in the country.
Washington had returned some diplomatic personnel to the region in recent months after many were pulled out when Tehran launched attacks on US facilities after the US-Israeli war on Iran began in late February.
“Iranian-supported Houthis have increasingly engaged in hostilities against Saudi Arabia, including attacks on civilian airports and other critical infrastructure resulting in civilian casualties and severe travel disruptions,” Pigott said.
Four US officials told Reuters that US missions in other Gulf states would also be ordering family members to leave. Pigott did not address changes to other missions outside Saudi Arabia.
The latest withdrawals follow an escalation of the fighting in Yemen, opening another front in the regional conflict triggered by the US-Israeli war on Iran. The wider conflict has snarled global energy trade and hurt Gulf economies.
After the departure order, Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation authority reported an attack on King Fahd International Airport in Dammam that killed one person and injured eight others. Earlier in the day, two people were killed after Saudi air defences intercepted a drone that was attempting to hit a facility at Saudi Aramco’s Shaybah oilfield, the energy ministry said.
The US embassy in Riyadh issued a security alert on Wednesday about possible further attacks by the Houthis on Saudi Arabia, after recent deadly strikes including on Riyadh’s airport.
The embassy and a CIA station hosted there came under attack by drones in early March, as Iran began launching attacks across the region.
Malaysia has banned civil servants from using Alphabet’s navigation app Waze, citing security concerns linked to its origins in Israel.
Muslim-majority Malaysia is a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause and does not maintain diplomatic relations with Israel.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim ordered the ban “to protect government information and users’ personal data from the threat of misuse by the Israeli regime,” his office said in a statement on Wednesday.
Waze said on Thursday that claims it collected sensitive government information or allowed any entity to exploit personal user data were completely false.
“Waze operates under strict privacy policies that protect user data and comply with global legal data protection standards,” a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
The Israeli embassy in Singapore did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Anwar had said the government was looking into potential security risks arising from the use of Waze, which he said was subject to Israeli laws.
He recommended the use of TuJu, a domestic mapping app developed by the Malaysian Highway Authority, as an alternative.
Malaysia’s Chief Secretary to the Government Shamsul Azri Abu Bakar said all civil servants would now be barred from using Waze, according to a letter dated Tuesday and addressed to the heads of government agencies.
The letter, reviewed by Reuters, said the directive, to be implemented immediately, followed a decision taken at the meeting chaired by Anwar.
An official with the Prime Minister’s Department confirmed the letter’s authenticity.
Waze, which was founded in Israel, uses satellite signals and crowd-sourced data from drivers to offer real-time traffic information. It was acquired by Alphabet-owned Google in 2013.
© Ofir Berman for The New York Times
Pese a que era el líder de Israel cuando unas 1.200 personas murieron en los ataques encabezados por Hamás el 7 de octubre de 2023, Benjamin Netanyahu tiene opciones sorprendentemente buenas de obtener un buen resultado en las elecciones generales de la próxima semana. En parte se debe a las campañas militares del primer ministro israelí, que le han devuelto el prestigio a ojos de algunos de sus compatriotas. También a que preside una economía que en 2025 logró crecer más de un punto porcentual por encima de la media del 1,8% de los países de la OCDE, el club de economías desarrolladas. Aun así, otro Gobierno podría obtener un dividendo económico.
© Amir Cohen (REUTERS)
Las elecciones del 27 de octubre en Israel estarán dominadas por una única pregunta: mantener a Benjamin Netanyahu o deshacerse de él. Pero hay una lucha más profunda sobre la identidad del país, y las fuerzas antiliberales de Israel están ganando.
© Oded Balilty (AP Photo)
Los ejércitos de Estados Unidos e Israel han desarrollado nuevos planes para volver a atacar Irán después de las elecciones de medio mandato en EE UU, según The New York Times, que cita a altos cargos estadounidenses y otras fuentes. La planificación llega mientras las fuerzas armadas de ambos países han intensificado sus maniobras militares en la zona para practicar misiones de bombardeos, y cuando el Departamento de Estado ha dado instrucciones de evacuar al personal no imprescindible de su embajada en Arabia Saudí y sus familiares, ante la perspectiva de posibles nuevos ataques de los rebeldes hutíes en Yemen. También cuando Israel está a punto de celebrar unas elecciones en las que su primer ministro, Benjamin Netanyahu, se juega la reelección.
© Vahid Salemi (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
© JOÃO PORFÍRIO/OBSERVADOR
Al Mayadeen | October 22, 2026
A senior security official in Tehran said Iran would consider US political targets, along with the infrastructure of countries participating in a new war, legitimate targets if another round of broad war includes assassinations of officials and the massacring of civilians, Fars News Agency reported late on Wednesday.
The official said Iran has communicated this to its operational ranks.
The official explained that Iran takes a US and Israeli attack as a given and regards American diplomatic gestures as lacking credibility, a view that intensified after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s October 7 speech in Athens, which Tehran sees as giving the war a historical and civilizational cover.
The official said Iranian leaders and elites have reached the unprecedented conclusion that US Middle East policy is directed from Tel Aviv and that “Israel” will not allow a diplomatic solution, because for Trump, “Israel” comes first.
Iran says it is already at war
The official said Iran already considers itself at war with the United States, and sees the US economic and naval blockade and the restrictions on air traffic as a continuation of the military aggression that began on February 28. There is strong pressure across Iranian society for decisive action to break the blockade on the basis of legitimate defense, the official emphasized.
Washington reinstated its naval blockade of Iranian ports on July 14, after collapsing an interim truce and attacking areas across southwestern Iran.
Iran asked the UN Security Council on Wednesday to condemn the blockade and demand it be lifted. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday that Tehran’s seven-day plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz remains on the table. Iran hinges the reopening of the Strait on a ceasefire across all fronts, a US sanctions waiver on oil sales, and a release of $12 billion in frozen assets.
Trump want to ‘finish the job’
The warning followed US President Donald Trump’s Truth Social post on Sunday in which he said Iran has been “systematically destroyed” and that unless it changes course the United States will “soon finish the job.”
The same post gave Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu his “Complete and Total Endorsement” for “Israel’s” October 27 election. Trump called Netanyahu a “Great Warrior Prime Minister” in the war on Iran and wrote that if “Israel” chooses any other leader, America would have to do the work itself, which he is not inclined to do.
Netanyahu answered with a video and a post thanking “my friend Donald.” He directed part of his message to American voters, saying gas prices would fall once Iran’s government “disappears,” but only under Trump. US midterm elections are on November 3. Trump had declined for months to endorse Netanyahu, and US Vice President JD Vance declined to join him, saying he is focused on American races.
Araghchi replied on X that “last time you wanted to ‘finish the job,’ Iran emerged even stronger,” adding that Tehran has “unfinished jobs too.”
Israeli jets fly to the Iranian border
On Wednesday, Axios reported that dozens of Israeli Air Force jets, with refueling aircraft, flew more than 800 miles on Monday, violating Syrian and Iraqi airspace, as far as the Iranian border before turning back. “Israel” told Washington it was a “power projection” training exercise, which is said was meant to deter Iran ahead of the elections
US officials said “Israel” knew Iranian air defenses would detect the jets, and some said they had the impression “Israel” hoped Iran would fire on them, providing a justification for strikes. Other US and Israeli officials called the sortie unusual only in scale.
The stunt took place on the day US War Secretary Pete Hegseth met Netanyahu at Ovda Airbase. Meanwhile, Netanyahu and Security Minister Israel Katz made new threats, with Katz saying “If Iran attacks Israel, Iran will burn!”
Axios reported last week that Trump and Netanyahu discussed in early October a major new aggression against Iran before the Israeli and US elections. A US official said Trump told Netanyahu to “go ahead and get ready,” though he made no commitment.
Additionally, the US State Department has prepared to order some personnel and family members to leave US embassies across the Gulf, Reuters reported, which would include all personnel at the mission in Saudi Arabia.
More ships targeted in Hormuz
On the other hand, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy has stepped up its operations on ships in and around the strait, which have violated its navigation rules.
On October 9, it said any vessel using an unauthorized route would be pursued and “punished” anywhere in the region. On Sunday, six commercial vessels were struck in and around the strait, the most in a single day since the war began.
On October 12, the IRGC said it had hit a third tanker in two days for navigating without its tracking system and ignoring warnings. Tankers have since caught fire after hitting mines on unauthorized routes. Ships on a non-compliance list kept by Iran’s Gulf Strait Authority now number about 100.
Iran demanded Israel’s expulsion from the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) for its crimes against Palestinians and other countries, calling it “the most important source of insecurity and instability” in the region.
“If the international community does not stop America and Israel today, their aggression will spread to all independent countries … it is time for this [Zionist] regime to be expelled from the CICA mechanism,” Iran’s deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said during its meeting on Thursday, October 15.
The seventh summit of the 29 member CICA process, formed in 1999 as an inter-governmental forum for establishing peace, security, and stability in Asia was held in Baku, Azerbaijan on Thursday.
Prior to Iran putting its demand for Israel’s expulsion, representatives of almost a dozen countries including Iran, Turkiye, Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Egypt walked out of the meeting once the Israeli President Isaac Herzog started speaking.
This was the second time this year that a top Israeli official faced mass boycott on international forums. Last month, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was addressing the annual session of the UN General Assembly, delegates from 77 countries boycotted his speech over the genocide in Gaza and other wars in the region.
Representatives from Kuwait also joined the walk out on Thursday, contradicting recent reports in Israeli and US media about it being one of the probable countries to join the so-called Abraham Accords, devised by US President Donald Trump during his first term in office to end the isolation of Israel in the region.
Despite the Trump administration’s push, so far only the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco have joined the accords.
Gharibabadi mentioned how Israel has been involved in two illegal wars against his country within 16 months from its continued “occupation of Palestinian territories, violation of the rights of Palestinian people, and the escalation of tensions in Lebanon, Syria, as well as other parts of the region,” the IRNA reported.
Gharibabadi claimed that his country believes that “one cannot speak of sustainable security in Asia while remaining indifferent to occupation, aggression, military threats, and violation of the rights of the Palestinian nation.”
He also pointed out the broader challenges to regional and global peace and stability, claiming that the CICA meeting was held at a time when the international order is facing “one of its most significant challenges, namely; the “normalization of the use of force, alongside attempts to impose its political will upon independent nations through military aggression, sanctions and threats.”
Gharibabadi highlighted the combined role of Israel and the US, claiming each of the Israeli crimes against the Palestinians and other countries in the region is committed with the support provided by the US who acts as a “big brother” to the Zionist regime.
Answering the concerns raised by several delegates in the meeting, Gharibabadi underlined that peace in West Asia and safe navigation through the waterways in the region is only possible if there is a permanent end to all kinds of aggression and war and there is respect for its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The CICA conference ended with the adoption of the Baku Declaration, which highlighted the need to address growing military, political, economic, and environmental risks.
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