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 reportedthat the US military was sending a Patriot battery from Texas to strengthen its air defenses in the region.
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.”