Iran said still able to produce missiles and drones, is being armed by Russia

Iran has preserved its missile and drone factories and can replenish its supply of the weapons, unnamed Western officials told Bloomberg in a Saturday report, with one official saying Russia was also providing the Islamic Republic with missiles.

The report comes amid ongoing tensions between Washington and Tehran, and just days after American media reported that the US military had been told to plan a return to conflict, reportedly asking for several days of intensive strikes on Iranian energy sites as well as missile and drone arsenals. Trump himself has said that the US will not strike Iran before the November 3 US midterm elections.

According to Bloomberg, Iran has spent the last several months of relative quiet to rearm and rebuild its damaged weapons industry, with officials telling the outlet that the country remains “well-stocked” with both ballistic missiles and anti-ship weapons, and can “quickly add more.”

The officials said Iran has enough firepower to effectively retaliate if the US renews strikes against it.

One official said that Moscow is providing Tehran with missiles. The Russian Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment from Bloomberg.

The outlet noted that the officials’ assessment contradicts comments by Trump and his staff, including US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who said on September 30 that the US had destroyed the Iranians’ “military industrial capacity” and “their entire defense base.”

In a statement quoted by Bloomberg, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly “rejected that assessment” by the unnamed officials, the outlet said.

“First, President Trump obliterated Iran’s nuclear facilities during Operation Midnight Hammer,” Bloomberg quoted Kelly as saying, in reference to US strikes during the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June 2025.

“Then, Operation Epic Fury successfully destroyed the conventional shield that Iran sought to create over a nuclear program, including their ballistic missiles, production facilities, and navy,” Kelly said, referring to the war launched by Israel and the US against Iran on February 28 this year.

Report: US pushed Israel to strike Iran alone

Meanwhile, the Hebrew-language daily Maariv reported Saturday that in recent weeks, the US had been pushing Israel to launch strikes on Iran on its own, without its military joining in.

The report, which did not cite any sources, said Trump wanted Israel to take the lead on striking Iran, amid reports that Tehran is quickly rearming, since he did not want to take political heat in the US for restarting the war right before the November midterm vote.

The daily said IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir pushed back, warning that such action would likely lead to the postponement of Israel’s October 27 Knesset election.

It said Washington had backed off from the proposal for now.

The Maariv report came a day after Channel 12 reported that senior US officers told Zamir earlier this week that the White House and Pentagon had instructed them to prepare for a massive attack on Iran within three weeks, a timespan that ends shortly before the midterms.

The outlet similarly said Zamir had told his American counterparts that such an attack could cause the Israeli election to be postponed. It cited a senior US official and another official. Jerusalem reportedly assesses that Iran would respond to an American strike with massive missile fire at Israel.