The Iran file was dominated by a new security warning after Axios reported that the US Department of Defense (Pentagon) issued orders to US Central Command to complete preparations to continue strikes on Iran, while President Donald Trump is still assessing the timing of such strikes without setting a date. The site quoted American and Israeli sources as saying the strikes could occur before the US midterm elections scheduled for November 3 and before the Israeli elections on October 27, warning that their continuation could lead to wide attacks on infrastructure.
Months after American and Israeli strikes targeted Iran's most prominent uranium enrichment facilities, the size of what remains of its nuclear program and its ability to resume enrichment are still unclear, amid ambiguity over the fate of a large part of its 60% enriched stockpile. Israel launched air raids on Iranian nuclear facilities on June 13, 2025, and the United States joined in a 12-day campaign that destroyed or severely damaged the three known uranium enrichment facilities, while Washington demands Tehran reduce its enrichment capacity 'tangibly.' A Congressional Research Service report revealed that the US military lost 81 aircraft, between destroyed and damaged, during the war with Iran, at a cost of between $1.9 and $3.3 billion. CNN sources indicated the total cost of the war is at least $45 billion, while the report raises questions about the adequacy of information provided to Congress and funding repair or replacement operations.
Diplomatically, Iran announced that its response to American proposals aimed at ending the war will be delivered to the American side through mediators, according to what the Tawasul News Network reported, without additional details about the content of the response, its delivery date, or the identity of the mediators. In US domestic politics, President Donald Trump repeated during an election rally in San Antonio, Texas, his statements about the possibility of Iran targeting the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, after he had ignored the previous day a question from a journalist at the White House asking him to clarify. Trump had said at an earlier rally in Nebraska that targeting American cities represents a 'small price' that must be paid in exchange for preventing Iran from possessing a nuclear weapon, which drew widespread criticism from Democrats and officials in California who described his statements as dangerous, while the White House defended his remarks and denied that he was calling for their targeting.
In analysis, a Hebrew strategic research site discussed the unlit aspects of Israeli discourse regarding confrontations with Iran and the American blockade, indicating that the primary goal is to choke Iran's ability to rebuild the axis of its allies. It affirmed that Iran does not constitute an existential threat to Israel in the absence of nuclear weapons or thousands of ballistic missiles, but it built a ring of fire around Israel that the latter crushed during the three years of war. It believes Iran today has much less money to rebuild this ring, especially after great damage and the American blockade. In a related context, Lebanese politician Elie El-Firzli considered that the partition of Iran would mean Israel reaching Medina, in a brief statement published by Lebanese media, without additional details about the context.