Trump blocked Netanyahu's planned October offensive against Iran, FT reports

Israel was ready to resume strikes against Iran with a multi-day operation planned for the weekend of 10 October, but cancelled it after Donald Trump opposed it, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing three people familiar with the matter. (The FT is paywalled; details corroborated by Israeli outlets.)

The IDF had prepared targets spanning nuclear facilities, civilian infrastructure including power plants, and regime sites; the operation would have exceeded February’s Operation Roaring Lion, the joint US–Israeli campaign of 28 February. Trump opposed reigniting the conflict before the 3 November US midterm elections. Whether Washington would have joined was unclear; one source called a joint resumption of strikes in the coming weeks “not an unreasonable scenario”: “There will either be a deal or an attack.”

Netanyahu is campaigning to resume large-scale strikes and recently told the IDF to plan a new offensive. One source said the October plan may have been a negotiating tactic, and that restarting the fighting was Trump’s call; Israel has also compiled a new target bank including civilian infrastructure sites not hit before.

The report follows Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s unannounced Monday visit to Israel — he met Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz — and a Fox News report of an Israeli drill flying jets toward Iran via Syria and Iraq on Tuesday. On 9 October, Trump said Washington would not attack Iran before the midterms, citing “productive discussions”; Democrats leader Yair Golan urged security chiefs to block action serving personal interests. The Pentagon has not commented.

Sources: The Jerusalem Post · Times of Israel · Ynet · Haaretz · Business Times / AFP