Pentagon tells Central Command to ready new Iran strike options the White House wants usable before the Nov. 3 midterms

The Pentagon has told U.S. Central Command (the military headquarters that runs U.S. operations across the Middle East) to finish preparing options for resuming major combat against Iran, U.S. officials told Axios. The White House asked for options that could be used before the Nov. 3 midterms. No launch date is set, and Trump has not made a final decision. The meeting. Trump's national security team met for several hours at Camp David on Friday, Oct. 2. An Israeli official said part of that meeting covered resuming combat. The political case. Supporters inside the administration admit limited strikes would not lower gas prices before Election Day. They argue the strikes would let Trump claim a win. “It would make the president look like he got a win and that gas prices would start going down.” (TS: The Atlantic's own reporting: crude has usually gone up, not down, when strikes resumed after a pause.) — A Republican familiar with the deliberations, to The Atlantic Still open. The size and targets are still being debated. A second Israeli official told Axios the chances before the election are “not high but we don't rule it out,” and that “after the midterms the chances of it happening increase significantly.”

Why limited strikes would not reopen Gulf oil before Election Day:

• Strait of Hormuz oil flow, first half of 2025: 20.9 million barrels a day (EIA)
• Share of world petroleum use that passed through it: about one-fifth (EIA)
• Saudi and UAE pipelines that can bypass the strait: about 4.7 million barrels a day (EIA)