Trump weighs three Iran options after reported Tehran alert

By The Conservative Desk (/journals/conservative-desk)

Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst reported live from Tel Aviv on Fox & Friends Weekend after a phone interview with President Donald Trump. The president said “very big things” will happen with Iran in the “not so distant future.”

“My question is: If and when do I blow the entire nation up? They better behave.”

Yingst said Trump laid out three choices—wiping Iran out, letting the regime rot economically, or making a deal—and that the president is in deciding mode. Pressed for a clearer timeline, Trump added, “Some of the officials are hiding like rats.”

Those remarks landed as Iran-backed Houthi forces launched missile and drone strikes toward the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on Saturday. Iran has reportedly raised its military readiness to the highest level, with officials describing air, ground, and naval response plans aimed at U.S. and Israeli forces and interests. That alert status has not been independently confirmed.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps answered through state media the same weekend. Brigadier General Hossein Mohebb, quoted by Tasnim News on Sept. 21, said any new attack would widen the fight. “In the event of a new attack, in addition to changing the geography of the battle, new targets will be struck, and strategic weapons that have not yet been unveiled or used will be employed.” Mohebb added that missile strikes are “directed solely at US military equipment and bases.”

Iranian forces separately claimed intelligence that the United States was preparing another large-scale attack. They offered no evidence, and Washington has not confirmed any such preparations. Tehran also warned that countries in the region that assist an American strike would be treated as parties to the conflict.

Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf went further on Sunday, according to Mehr News. He said there will be no return to previous negotiations and no reopening of the Strait of Hormuz until Iran’s conditions are met. “Today the old American order in West Asia has collapsed, and it is the Islamic countries of the region that must implement a new order.”

That is Tehran’s position in its own words: further American or Israeli action will bring unused weapons, a wider map, and sustained strikes on U.S. bases; the strait stays closed; and a new regional order replaces what Qalibaf calls the old American one. The assertion of an imminent U.S. attack rests on undisclosed intelligence. The claim that missiles aim only at military equipment does not remove the danger to American service members at those bases or to the civilians who live and work near them. A tanker was reportedly struck by an unknown projectile in the Strait of Hormuz, injuring two crew members, a concrete reminder that commerce and crews already sit in the blast radius.

The United States has treated the danger as immediate for its own people. The U.S. Virtual Embassy in Iran issued a security warning over the weekend. “Do not travel to Iran for any reason. U.S. citizens should leave Iran now.” The State Department keeps Iran at its highest “Do Not Travel” level. A further advisory stated, “This military conflict has the potential to escalate rapidly. Americans outside the Middle East should seriously reconsider travel to and through the region.” Officials flagged possible flight cancellations, airspace closures, and shifting border procedures, and tied the renewed caution to Houthi hostilities against Saudi targets that included civilian airports. The department warned that U.S. diplomatic facilities, including outside the Middle East, have been targeted, and that Iran and groups supportive of Iran may target other U.S. interests overseas, including businesses and institutions.

For ordinary Americans with family, contracts, or travel plans anywhere near the region, the order is simple and urgent: get out. Sovereignty is not a slogan when proxies fire toward a partner capital and when a vital waterway is held closed pending a hostile regime’s conditions. Free enterprise runs on the same arteries. Shipping, insurance, and crude exports through the Gulf set fuel prices and payroll costs at home. When those routes are disrupted, the bill reaches the taxpayer and the wage earner before it reaches the negotiating table. Oil prices fell amid hopes for renewed U.S.-Iran talks and recovering Saudi crude exports—a market wager on diplomacy that sits uneasily beside the Riyadh attack and the reported alert.

President Trump cut short a weekend stay at Camp David and returned to Washington. He had reportedly considered and ordered preparations for potential U.S. strikes on the Houthis before halting them. The halt does not erase the underlying choice he named on Fox: decisive force, sustained economic pressure, or a deal.

Trump has left open the possibility of meeting Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in New York during the U.N. General Assembly. Pezeshkian is expected to travel Tuesday. The United States approved travel for a core Iranian delegation to the gathering despite the conflict. Yingst reported that there are no direct communications between Washington and Tehran at the moment.

Aside from the president’s own stated option of making a deal, Trump’s three paths remain the frame on the table. Limited government does not require unlimited patience for attacks on American interests, partners, and citizens. The constitutional duty to protect the country includes deciding whether a regime that closes a strait, backs strikes on a capital, and threatens U.S. bases with weapons not yet used will face force, pressure, or terms.

Fox News framed the moment as Trump weighing his next move in the Iran war as Tehran threatens new weapons. What remains unresolved is the decision itself. Pezeshkian is due in New York this week. Trump is back in Washington. The reported alert, if accurate, is already at its highest level.