Trump Rules Out Iran Strikes Before the Midterms as Gulf Attacks Rise

After days of escalation in the Gulf, President Trump posted on Truth Social on Thursday that the United States will not attack Iran at any time before the midterm elections in November, and that Washington is having what he called productive discussions with Tehran.

The post landed as attacks on tankers in and around the Strait of Hormuz hit their highest weekly levels since the war began, with at least a dozen vessels hit in the first days of October, including one struck north of Qatar with casualties reported. Iran claims the strait is closed and under its control, while American commanders say roughly twenty million barrels of crude are still flowing through it every day.

Washington paired the message with new sanctions. The Treasury Department sanctioned seventeen more Iran-linked vessels and their support networks on Thursday, in an operation it has named Operation Economic Outcast, which officials describe as the most significant blow yet to Iran's shadow oil fleet. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said no enabler of Iranian sanctions evasion is safe, and the department says Iran now has around twenty million barrels of oil sitting on ships off Singapore, Malaysia and China, with new loading stopped.

Tehran, for its part, rejected the latest American offer. Its foreign minister says Iran will reply to the American counterproposal within days, and Iran's atomic energy chief says the country will not abandon uranium enrichment or hand over its stockpile.

Axios reports that any resumption of strikes after the midterms could include large-scale attacks on Iranian energy, infrastructure and nuclear targets, though American officials describe that as planning, not a decision. A Reuters poll found sixty percent of Americans disapprove of how President Trump is handling Iran. The Gulf states called on Thursday for what they described as a firm and deterrent international response to the attacks on shipping.

From the October 9 episode of The World Briefing Room.