Pentagon's new Iran strike plans include MOAB, largest non-nuclear bomb in US arsenal eyed for energy and nuclear sites

Pentagon planners have drawn up new strike options against Iran that include the largest non-nuclear bomb in the US arsenal, according to multiple US officials familiar with the matter — plans that would target Iranian energy infrastructure and nuclear sites if President Trump orders combat operations resumed, before or after the November midterms.

The weapon, the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, has not been used in the seven-month-old campaign the White House calls Operation Epic Fury, and its first use would mark a notable escalation. Several sources familiar with the internal planning doubt it would accomplish Trump's stated strategic objectives or tip the balance of the war.

When the campaign opened, top White House officials promised it would be swift. Rubio said it could take "days", then offered timelines of "four to six weeks" or "a couple of months". No end-goal or exit point has ever been defined. CNN reports Trump now faces pressure to end a war that is deeply unpopular with the US public, and Republicans are bracing for voter backlash in the midterms. Trump's public statements say he is not planning to resume the bombing; prior reporting suggested he considered doing so before the elections. It is not the first time officials have leaked Iran war plans to the press.

Iran, meanwhile, is signalling duration. Parliament Speaker Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf, in a televised speech on Wednesday, invoked the Iran-Iraq war — which lasted from 1980 to 1988 — as the measure of what Iran is prepared to endure. The country's wartime economy is cratering under sweeping sanctions and unprecedented isolation from energy markets, and the ayatollah and many top officials have already been assassinated.

The war's regional front widened the same week. On Thursday, Houthis fired missiles at Al-Maashiq palace in Aden, the headquarters of the Saudi-backed government, killing at least four people and wounding ten, according to military sources cited by AFP. Yemen's prime minister and cabinet members present were unharmed. The Houthis said they had struck what they described as a Saudi military operations headquarters inside the complex; Reuters could not independently verify the claim. Coalition spokesperson Turki al-Maliki says the Houthis have carried out 20 attacks on Riyadh's King Khalid International Airport in October alone, killing 17 people and injuring 333.

When the campaign began, Washington measured it in days. On Wednesday, Iran's parliament speaker reached for a war that lasted eight years.