Senior officials of Donald Trump's administration gathered at Camp David on Friday, 2 October to decide on continuing the war with the Islamic Republic. According to CBS News, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and General Dan Caine, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, attended the meeting. The war in Yemen between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis was also on the agenda.
The meeting took place as the war, which began with the strikes of 28 February 2026, has now entered its eighth month.
A third aircraft carrier on its way to the region
The USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group and the USS Makin Island amphibious group have set off for the Middle East. According to CBS, the two groups are carrying about 7,000 sailors and 2,000 Marines, and with their arrival by the end of October the number of US military personnel in the region will reach about 20,000. The carriers George H. W. Bush and George Washington and the Boxer amphibious group had already been deployed to the region.
Donald Trump told reporters on Saturday night that the Islamic Republic has been crushed and must now choose between the easy way and the hard way. He had said earlier that even if US forces left the region tomorrow, it would take the Islamic Republic years to repair the damage.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also stressed that the Islamic Republic will never obtain a nuclear weapon. According to him, the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is fully in place and shipping traffic through the waterway has come close to pre-war levels.
Tehran: diplomacy's door is not closed, but the war will go on
A well-informed source in Tehran told The National that Iran's government is preparing for «a major round of war». According to the source, although the diplomatic track remains open, the assessment in Tehran is that the fighting will start again.
The New York talks ended without result after seven months of war, and both sides are preparing for a new round of conflict.
According to the same report, last month's meetings between US and Islamic Republic officials in New York reached no result. Tehran proposed a seven-day, phased plan to end the stalemate in the Strait of Hormuz, and the United States sent a counterproposal that the Islamic Republic is unlikely to accept. Tehran has also offered to transfer its stockpile of 60% enriched uranium to a third country under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as quoted by Mehr news agency, has also threatened to respond decisively and immediately to any action by the United States or the countries of the region, saying the response would go beyond the October 2024 missile operation against Israel.
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