Top US commander briefs Trump on Iran military options as 10 US military transport planes land in Israel
Regional buildup continues; 3 tankers catch fire after hitting mines near Hormuz; Trump says Vance outreach to Terhan was about medical supplies
The US military’s top commander overseeing the Middle East met President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday to present military options concerning Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing US officials and others with direct knowledge of the meeting.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine also joined the meeting, at which US Central Command chief Adm. Brad Cooper presented the options, according to the report.
Reuters said it could not immediately independently verify the Wall Street Journal report.
The meeting came as Washington and Jerusalem were reported last week to be considering a “short but intensive operation” of renewed strikes on Iran after the November 3 US midterm elections.
Military drills ramped up, targeting Iranian energy sites, nuclear facilities and arsenals of missiles and drones. The report said Trump could still decide against military action.
More than 10 US military transport aircraft landed at Israeli airbases in southern Israel over the past week, according to analysts monitoring open-source flight-tracking data.
Most of the recent cargo flights took off from Biggs Army Airfield in El Paso, Texas, and were bound for the Israeli Air Force’s Nevatim and Ovda airbases in southern Israel, according to the data.
A number of other US military cargo flights also traveled to American bases elsewhere in the Middle East in recent days, including in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait.
The contents of the transport planes were unknown, but were thought to be connected to US efforts to bolster its air defenses in the region ahead of a possible new round of fighting with Iran.
On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that the US military was sending a Patriot battery from Texas to strengthen its air defenses in the region.
Iranian officials claim election-interference efforts
Iran sought to interfere in Israel’s election and planned to attempt to disrupt the US midterm elections the following week, Britain’s Telegraph reported Thursday, citing several Iranian officials.
“We have been looking into ways to recruit agents in both the American and Israeli regimes’ election processes,” one of the officials told the newspaper, without elaborating on what efforts had been made to interfere in Israel’s election.
Regarding the US vote, the official said “powerful cyber groups have also been established to hack their election systems.”
Another Iranian official portrayed the campaign as part of Tehran’s response to the war, which Iran believed had been forced upon it by Israel and the United States.
“War does not just mean missiles and guns when we are under their blockade,” the official said. “It also means we are prepared to disrupt their elections, their banking, their travel and all their ordinary systems.”
“We are not in favor of any candidate anywhere, but we would like to see a divided America and a divided Israel,” the official added.
The report came amid an Israeli investigation into suspected foreign efforts to influence Tuesday’s election. Central Elections Committee chairman Justice Noam Sohlberg asked the Shin Bet on Thursday to examine intelligence concerning suspected foreign funding and possible electoral interference, while stressing that the suspicions had not been substantiated. The Shin Bet said the information originated from its own intelligence concerning foreign influence.
Three tankers hit mines near Strait of Hormuz
Separately, three tankers exploded and caught fire after striking sea mines while attempting to cross an unauthorized route south of the Strait of Hormuz over the previous 24 hours, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement carried by state media.
The Guard said the vessels had switched off their radar and navigation systems and ignored warnings from its naval forces. The tankers were subsequently abandoned on the southern shores of the strait, according to the statement.
It was unclear whether anyone had been injured or who had laid the mines.
Tehran says it received Vance letter
Iran confirmed Thursday that it had received a letter from US Vice President JD Vance but said it had not yet responded, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.
The acknowledgment came after the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Vance had sent a letter to Iranian security chief Mohsen Rezaei as part of an effort to revive peace negotiations.
Tasnim said Tehran continued to insist that seven conditions it had set for the United States be met, adding that “any position that contradicts this framework is unacceptable.”
The agency did not detail the conditions in the material provided.
Trump, however, said Wednesday that Vance’s outreach was about helping Iran get medical supplies.
Asked by reporters later if he directed Vance to reach out to Iran to restart peace negotiations, Trump said: “No.”
“What that is is they need help with medical supplies and various things. [Vance] asked me what I thought. I said, if you want to do that, that’s okay. Basically, it’s getting supplies in to help people that are not well,” Trump told reporters.