US President Donald Trump said he was considering options for the next phase of the war with Iran, including resuming wide-ranging military operations, and confirmed that he would soon decide whether to continue the current approach or expand the confrontation.
Trump keeps military options open
Trump said in a press interview on Thursday that all options remained on the table. His remarks came ahead of a scheduled meeting with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, to hear their positions on the next steps.
US officials said Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had instructed the military to maintain its current level of deployment in the Middle East through the end of the year, to ensure readiness if a decision was made to resume wide-ranging military operations against Iran. As US options were being examined, US officials acknowledged that Iranian forces had shot down at least two US MQ-1 drones in recent days.
US acknowledgments of two drones being shot down
The acknowledgment came after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced that it had shot down US drones in areas near the Strait of Hormuz. The IRGC had announced on September 16 that it had shot down a US MQ-9 drone over Qeshm Island using air defense systems.
It also said its forces had shot down three more MQ-1 drones, a figure exceeding the number confirmed by US officials.
