NYT reports plans for fresh strikes on Iran after the US midterm elections

Both the United States and Israel gearing up for pivotal domestic elections in the next two weeks, and their war with Iran is a central campaign issue. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has continued to push his agenda against Tehran and his alliance with Donald Trump's U.S. on that campaign trail. Well, now, reports say both Washington and Israel could be preparing for new strikes just after the U.S. midterms, but with the fallout of the Middle East conflict contributing to Trump's plunging popularity, U.S. officials say he could be reluctant to commit and have described his decision-making as, quote, day-to-day whiplash. Earlier, I spoke to our correspondent in Tehran, Reza Saya, and asked him if this threat of fresh strikes really changes anything for Iran, as it has faced intense bombing campaigns before. Many observers and analysts are asking that same question. What's the objective here? What's the strategy? Of course, the U.S. and Israel launched the 12-day war last June. That didn't work. The leadership stayed intact. The country continued to function. They launched the 40-day Ramadan war earlier this year. That didn't work. They assassinated the top leadership, military and political leadership. They assassinated a Supreme Leader, although the country was in serious pain. The leadership continued and the country continued to function. And that said, the question is, if those previous wars did not work, what makes Washington and Tel Aviv believe that another round of strikes is going to work? Even though there are no clear answers to that question, recently over the past week, there's been a lot of headlines, a lot of speculation that Tel Aviv and Washington are preparing for another round of war. They're laying out, trying to lay out the justification. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week explicitly coming out and saying Iran is building a nuclear bomb without providing any evidence. Mr. Netanyahu, U.S. President Donald Trump on the phone this week saying they have to finish the job with Tehran. Israeli jet fighters doing exercises, maneuvers near the Iran border. the U.S. calling for diplomats to leave the local embassies, and U.S. troops with some movement in the Persian Gulf. All of those signs that perhaps another round of war is coming. And Washington and Tel Aviv saying the objective is to destroy a nuclear program that they said was already destroyed earlier this year. We should point out that part of this war has been PSYOP, psychological warfare, attempts at feeding headlines to the media in order to apply pressure to the leadership and the population. Is this the case this time, or is war coming? It's not clear, but if it happens, both Tel Aviv and Washington have said they're going to target civilian infrastructure, energy infrastructure of big concern for the country.