Listen to the article
President Donald Trump has indicated that Sunday could bring either a new military strike on Iran or a negotiated agreement, sharpening a confrontation that has now drawn in US intelligence agencies, Houthi forces in Yemen and the Israeli election campaign simultaneously.
The warning came as Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton sent a classified memo to Secretary of State Marco Rubio stating that Iran had “substantially increased efforts to target US personnel” overseas, with lethal plots reaching “advanced stages” in the Middle East and other countries, according to US officials and the memo as cited by Axios and The New York Times. A US official confirmed the memo’s authenticity to the Times on behalf of the Trump administration. Washington has not publicly commented on the document, but the Times reported that the assessment was behind recent moves to withdraw American staff from the region.
The intelligence warning arrived alongside reports, cited by Senator Chris Van Hollen, of US-Israeli plans to renew attacks on Iran after the US midterm elections. Van Hollen, posting on X, called the campaign “Trump’s illegal Iran war” and warned it was becoming “our next forever war.” He drew comparisons to Vietnam and Iraq, writing: “Eight months in, Trump and Republicans have deluded themselves into thinking the next strike or another bombing campaign will finally bring victory. This war must end NOW.”
Iranian parliament threatens Israel with annihilation ‘in under an hour’
In Tehran, Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian parliament’s national security committee, issued a stark warning to Israel on Saturday, posting in Hebrew, English and Persian on X. “A single miscalculation is all it takes — the occupied lands rendered uninhabitable in under an hour,” he wrote. Azizi’s Hebrew-language post directly quote-reposted a video of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking at an army graduation ceremony, in which Netanyahu said: “There is only one way to remove this threat once and for all — to topple the regime in Iran. And that is my directive to the [army], the Mossad, and the security forces.”
The exchange underscored the degree to which the Israeli election, scheduled imminently, has become entangled with the military confrontation. Yossi Mekelberg, a Middle East analyst at Chatham House, described the vote as effectively a referendum on whether Israelis want “a never-ending war.” He argued that Netanyahu’s government had achieved “a tactical achievement, but a strategic failure” across what he counted as seven still-open fronts, including Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas, despite three years of promises of absolute victory.
Houthis strike Riyadh again as airport prepares to reopen
Yemen’s Houthi movement launched a fresh ballistic missile at Riyadh in the early hours of Sunday, which the Saudi-led coalition said it intercepted and destroyed. Saudi Arabia’s Civil Defence subsequently announced that the “danger” had passed in the capital. Earlier in the night, the coalition also said it had downed a drone aimed at the city.
The attacks came as King Khalid International Airport prepared to partially resume operations. The airport announced late Saturday that Terminal 1 would handle domestic flights and Terminal 2 international flights operated by national carriers starting Sunday — a partial restart after operations were halted on October 10 following a Houthi strike that killed 13 people and injured more than 300 others. Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree responded by reiterating that the airport remained “unsafe” and a “military target,” warning airlines, staff and travellers against using it.
Iran’s chief negotiator absent from BRICS forum
Iran’s parliament speaker and chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf will not attend the 12th BRICS Parliamentary Forum in New Delhi, the Iranian Embassy in India announced, citing “unforeseen circumstances” without elaboration. The embassy said Iran’s parliamentary delegation would still participate and reaffirmed Tehran’s “commitment to active and effective participation at the highest levels” in BRICS meetings. Iran joined the bloc, which originated in 2006 as BRIC before South Africa’s accession gave it its current name, as part of a later expansion that also brought in Egypt, Ethiopia, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia.
Ghalibaf’s absence, given his role as a central figure in Iran’s nuclear and diplomatic negotiations, drew attention at a moment when Tehran faces simultaneous military pressure from the United States and Israel and is reportedly planning retaliatory operations against American personnel abroad.