Trump Warns of 'Little Epic Fury' Strike as Iran Threatens Undersea Cables and US Plots Surface

At a Republican campaign rally in Florida, President Donald Trump told the crowd that the United States might carry out "another little Epic Fury" against Iran, or that Tehran might finally agree to terms. "If they're smart, they'll just say, let's get down to business," he said. He did not say what Iran would have to do to avoid a new round of strikes.

Epic Fury is the name of the joint US-Israeli campaign launched against Iran in February, which set off a war that is still going months later. That opening attack killed Iran's then Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with members of his family. At the rally, Trump also pointed back to an earlier operation, Midnight Hammer, saying it had wiped out Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity. He claimed Iran had been defeated militarily and financially, and that the United States was now "ensuring it's done."

His remarks followed a statement from Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey and point man on Syria, who has no direct role in Iran policy. On a podcast with Mario Nawfal, Barrack said a strike could come "as soon as this weekend." He added that Trump was open to a deal and that the two sides had been at the table for months. Trump briefly played down the comment. "That was my ambassador? He's a pretty powerful man, I guess. If that's the case, I don't know anything about it," he said.

Trump told a local Florida outlet that he sees the war ending soon, "one way or another, through agreement or otherwise." He gave no timetable and did not say whether negotiations were currently under way. He repeated that stopping Iran from getting a nuclear weapon was the central goal, and argued that earlier administrations had failed to deal with the threat. "I had to attack Iran, or they would have had a nuclear weapon," he said.

Tehran's answer, as reported by Reuters, was a warning not to "play with fire." An Iranian official said the country had drawn up detailed plans to hit undersea communications cables in the Gulf if the US and Israel attack again. The aim, the official said, would be to block repairs and stretch out disruptions to communications, including internet connections. "If Iran is attacked, there will be no more red lines," the official said, naming targets from undersea cables to military bases, including covert ones.

The American side is also reporting danger to its own people. Axios reported that Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton sent Secretary of State Marco Rubio a one-page unclassified memo dated October 23, warning that Iran has stepped up efforts to target American officials and that some lethal plots are at an advanced stage. The memo did not name targets, say which countries outside the Middle East might be involved, or describe the nature of the plots.

The diplomatic footprint in the region has already shrunk. Earlier this week the US ordered non-emergency staff to leave the embassy in Riyadh and the consulates in Jeddah and Dhahran. Staff were later cut at the embassies in the UAE, Lebanon, Qatar and Jordan, a process diplomats described as chaotic.

What to watch now is whether the talks Barrack described produce an agreement, whether a strike follows, and whether more embassies in the Gulf thin out their staff.