🚨 NEW: The U.S. and Israel are preparing to resume attacks on Iran, possibly before Tuesday’s Israeli elections, according to senior Iranian officials and a U.S. official who spoke to Drop Site. The White House denies plans for U.S. strikes before the midterms. What each told Drop Site: 🔸 Gen. Mohsen Rezaei, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, in an exclusive written interview with Drop Site ➤ Iran retains the capacity to launch missiles and drones at U.S. assets and would expand its targets: “Cables, data centers and artificial intelligence facilities could also come within range. If the conflict begins again, we will have a broader plan.” ➤ On previously unused capabilities: “We did not deploy all our capabilities in the previous stages… and we are also prepared for the next stage.” ➤ On Gulf states whose energy infrastructure could help sustain the U.S. blockade: “Those governments should not assume they can participate in economic warfare against Iran without putting themselves at risk.” ➤ On diplomacy: Iran has presented seven new conditions through intermediaries. “Until those conditions are fulfilled, Iran will neither reopen the strait nor return to negotiations.” 🔸 A senior Iranian official ➤ Tehran’s intelligence assessment sees a high likelihood that large-scale bombing begins before the Israeli vote on October 27. “Trump has sat on Iran’s proposed package for ending the war, and negotiations have stalled.” ➤ Tehran believes Israel would strike first, “destroying Iran’s newly deployed air defense systems, in order to open the path for American bombers,” while the U.S. would target defenses along the Strait of Hormuz and potentially attempt to seize an Iranian island. ➤ Trump may launch a “token” attack on an underground nuclear site such as Pickaxe Mountain to claim victory. ➤ “Should another war against Iran begin… their casualty figures will be ten times higher.” 🔸 A U.S. official ➤ Military assets are moving rapidly into place ahead of an expected green light from Trump, with CENTCOM chief Gen. Bradley Cooper among those pushing for renewed attacks. ➤ “CENTCOM is putting all the pieces into place to renew major combat operations.” ➤ The official doubted strikes would come before the Israeli vote, but said: “We did start Epic Fury without all our assets in place.” ➤ “Trump has backed off major combat operations against Iran or the Houthis [Ansarallah] seven times since July… At the last minute, he calls it off.” 🔸 White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly ➤ “The United States will not be attacking Iran at any time prior to the midterm elections.” — The USS Theodore Roosevelt and the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit are heading to the region, bringing approximately 10,000 additional sailors and Marines. Two other U.S. aircraft carriers are already in the Arabian Sea. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, trailing in the polls, claimed Wednesday without evidence that Iran is developing a nuclear weapon and said his directive to the Israeli military, Mossad and security agencies is “to topple the regime in Iran.” 🔗 Full details in the new report from Jeremy Scahill, Peiman Salehi and Ryan Grim, linked below.

JD Vance greets Bengals players on the way out

For the first time in @metrotimes history, we’re no longer seeking comment from a candidate’s campaign because of repeated lies and bigoted attacks. That candidate is Mike Rogers, whose campaign keeps targeting Abdul El-Sayed’s Muslim faith. metrotimes.com/news/mike-rog…

ALERT: Live data showing that #GasPrices appear to be rising to $4.79/gal in #Michigan today.