President Donald Trump has kept his options for dealing with Iran open as economic and military pressure on Tehran continues.
On Tuesday, Trump told reporters outside the White House that he would make a decision on Iran “very soon,” describing the country as a “failed country.” He said Iran’s inflation rate had reached 300 percent and that the government could no longer afford to pay salaries.
Later, speaking at a campaign rally in Alaska, Trump issued a further warning: “Wait and see what we do to Iran. We’re going to hit them hard. Wait and see what we do to Iran, because we’ve had enough.”
With diplomacy stalled, economic pressure and the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports have emerged as the main instruments for pressuring Tehran, while the scope of American military operations has narrowed compared with the early months of the war.
“The President is satisfied letting the inevitable Iranian collapse play out,” a White House official told MBN on Wednesday, adding that Trump was holding “all the cards and will do whatever is best for the United States.”
The U.S. president retains the authority to take whatever action he deemed necessary to protect U.S. interests, the official said.
The comments suggest that the administration intends to maintain its economic pressure campaign for now while leaving the nature, timing and scale of any further steps undecided.
“The Department of War plans for a wide range of operational scenarios to execute Presidential and Secretarylevel direction and to ensure mission success in any operational environment,” a Pentagon official told MBN on Wednesday.
Barbara Slavin, a distinguished fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington and a lecturer in international affairs at George Washington University, said Trump’s military options were currently limited. Further escalation, she warned, could prompt additional Iranian attacks on ships and neighboring countries.
Slavin told MBN that Iran’s response might extend beyond the region and include new attempts to strike targets farther afield in the United States’ sphere of interests.
Alan Eyre, a former U.S. diplomat and distinguished diplomatic fellow at the Middle East Institute, said Trump’s remarks reflected a bet that applying greater force would compel Tehran to abandon its red lines and accept Washington’s main demands. Eyre questioned whether that strategy would succeed.
Farzin Nadimi, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, predicted a significant escalation in the coming period unless an exceptional development intervened to halt it.
Nadimi said a joint U.S.-Israeli military operation, backed by Gulf Cooperation Council countries, could achieve tangible results. He cautioned, however, that Iran’s government would not surrender easily.
A spokesman for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the United States designates as a terrorist organization, warned that any new American attack would be met with a stronger response than before, with consequences that would be “more painful for the United States,” according to a report by Tasnim.
Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have reportedly discussed the possibility of launching another large-scale military operation against Iran before the U.S. and Israeli elections, according to a report published Tuesday by Axios. The article cited U.S. officials, an Israeli official and a source familiar with the matter.
In the article, Netanyahu reportedly expressed concern over Israeli intelligence indicating that Iran was taking steps to rebuild its nuclear program.
Last week, Trump wrote on his Truth Social account that the United States would not attack Iran at any point before the U.S. midterm elections, scheduled for Nov. 3.
On the diplomatic front, the Stimson Center’s Slavin said reaching an agreement would require Trump “to give up maximal demands and to provide Iran with tangible benefits in return for a full reopening of Hormuz and Iranian pressure on the Houthis to stand down.”
Given these obstacles, Eyre of the Middle East Institute said Washington could find itself facing two options: Modify some of its demands in pursuit of an agreement or continue applying military and economic pressure in the hope of extracting concessions from Tehran’s government or bringing about its collapse.
Adapted and translated from the original Arabic.
