Sunset over Milad Tower in Tehran. (Image: Salehi1990mohsen / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 4.0)
The United States and Israel have drawn up detailed plans for a renewed round of strikes on Iran to take place after the November 3 midterm elections, according to a New York Times report — and Tehran has answered with a threat to unveil a weapon it calls the "Father of All Bombs."
Citing US officials and others briefed on the deliberations, the Times reported that the two militaries have developed plans for a short but intensive operation against Iran's energy infrastructure, its nuclear facilities, and its missile and drone arsenal, and have stepped up preparations including exercises flying aircraft over Iraq to practise strike manoeuvres. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel this week to discuss the potential renewed strikes.
Some US officials believe another major round of attacks could push Iran's economy to the brink and force Tehran into diplomatic concessions after nearly eight months of conflict. Israeli intelligence has assessed that Iran is moving to rebuild its nuclear program — an argument Netanyahu has pressed on President Donald Trump in favour of further joint action.
Tehran's response came through Hossein Mohebbi, a spokesperson for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, speaking to the state-affiliated Student News Network: "The United States has the 'Mother of All Bombs.' We will show them the 'Father of All Bombs,' and it will definitely be something new for them." Iran has offered no details about the supposed weapon, and the threat follows earlier US reporting that American planners have studied using the GBU-43/B "Mother of All Bombs" — the largest non-nuclear bomb in the US arsenal — against Iran's deeply buried Pickaxe Mountain nuclear site, though experts question whether even that weapon could destroy facilities protected by layers of granite.
Despite the planning, many analysts doubt a second campaign would achieve more than the first. The prevailing view among officials cited in coverage of the report is that additional strikes are unlikely to produce greater results than the war's early phase, when US and Israeli attacks damaged but did not eliminate Iran's nuclear infrastructure.
For now, the plans remain plans: any decision to resume major combat operations rests with Trump, who is weighing the military options alongside the political calendar. But with both sides publicly trading threats of bigger weapons, the pause in the Iran war is looking less like an ending and more like an intermission.
Also read: the US ordered non-emergency staff and families out of Saudi Arabia | Russia's agreement to resume three-way Ukraine peace talks