CENTCOM announced on Wednesday evening that it had begun launching additional “self-defense” strikes against multiple targets in Iran, after initially renewing its attacks on Tuesday. A U.S. official told Axios the latest targets included air-defense systems, radars and drone command-and-control units in southern Iran.

The strikes came hours after President Donald Trump met with his national security team to discuss military options, and as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters that CENTCOM would be “busy tonight” with “bombs dropping on key facilities in Iran.”

The military action came as Qatari mediators were reportedly meeting with officials in Tehran in an effort to revive negotiations and close remaining gaps between the U.S. and Iran.

Earlier in the day, Trump raised the possibility of targeting Iranian power plants and bridges, expressing frustration that Tehran is, in his view, stringing the U.S. along in diplomatic discussions. The strikes ultimately focused on military targets, according to a U.S. official.

For the last two weeks, a resumption of hostilities with Iran seemed unlikely, with the U.S. uninterested in sparking renewed fighting against the Islamic Republic in advance of President Donald Trump’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping — whose country is a key trade partner of Iran. 

But with the president back in Washington, the administration appears to be reopening military options — even as Iran continues to drag out tensions by offering what U.S. officials have said were unacceptable proposals to end the war. That extends to Congress, where Democrats on both sides of Capitol Hill are expected to introduce new war powers resolutions this week in an attempt to constrain the administration’s actions in the Middle East.

Trump told Axios on Sunday that “the clock is ticking” for Iran and the U.S. to reach an agreement to end the war. After rejecting Iran’s previous response to a U.S. proposal, Trump said that Tehran has to get to “where we want them to be,” or else “they are going to get hit much harder.” 

A decision on whether to return to active fighting could come as soon as Tuesday, when Trump is set to hold a Situation Room meeting to discuss options. After returning from Beijing, the president met on Sunday with Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

In Israel, preparations are being made for a possible return to war. Channel 12 quoted a senior Israeli official on Friday saying that the country is “preparing for days to weeks” of renewed fighting.

Even as the tenuous ceasefire has held, the United Arab Emirates — which during the active hostilities took the brunt of Iran’s attacks — has continued to face drone attacks. Emirati officials are investigating a fire near Abu Dhabi’s Barakah Nuclear Power Plant that broke out on Sunday after a drone entered the UAE from its western border and struck a generator near the facility.

The Islamic Republic’s ongoing strikes targeting the UAE — and its clashes with the U.S. Navy in the Gulf — play into a broader Iranian strategy to slow-walk negotiations as it continues to destabilize the region. Few doubt Iran’s capacity — even after six weeks of active fighting — to hit the U.S., the UAE, Israel or other U.S. assets in the region, but doing so would likely prompt a severe U.S. response and collapse the tenuous ceasefire, dragging Iran into a renewed conflict as it works to recoup its heavy losses from the U.S. and Israeli bombing campaigns.

It’s a strategy underscored by Iran’s seizure last week — the same day that Trump and Xi met — of a boat belonging to a Chinese security firm. While disruptive, no one aboard the vessel was killed or injured, and China is unlikely to retaliate for the incident. But analysts told The Wall Street Journal that the move was likely an effort by Tehran to send a message to Beijing. Chatham House’s Sanam Vakil told the WSJ that Iran’s apprehension of the boat “is a way to remind the Chinese who is in control of [the Strait of] Hormuz and they shouldn’t even think of providing their own security.”

Foot-dragging talks while making minimal concessions has served Iran well through multiple U.S. administrations, and allowed the Islamic Republic to retain control through rounds of active fighting while preserving its military and diplomatic leverage. Now, with Tehran appearing to bet that the outcome of the midterms could provide a more favorable environment in Washington and constrain the Trump administration’s ability to escalate, the question will be if Iran will slow-walk its way to November — or whether the clock has run out.

Tensions between the U.S. and Iran escalated on Sunday as President Donald Trump weighed options for striking Iran amid the regime’s crackdown on protesters, and Tehran threatened to strike U.S. bases in response.

Trump was briefed in recent days on options for sites to strike in Iran, The New York Times reported, after he issued several threats warning that the U.S. could get involved if the Iranian regime attempted to violently suppress the nationwide demonstrations that have racked the country for several weeks. 

The options include nonmilitary sites in Tehran, the Times wrote, as well as a large-scale aerial strike on military targets, The Wall Street Journal reported. Trump has not yet made a decision whether to proceed and no U.S. military action has been taken in preparation thus far, U.S. officials told the Times and the Journal. 

In response to the reports, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, said on Sunday that the country would attack American military bases in the region if the U.S. follows through, and even raised the possibility of a preemptive strike. Ghalibaf also threatened to attack regional shipping lanes and Israel.

Over the last week, Trump has made repeated threats against the Iranian regime that the U.S. was “locked and loaded” and would “rescue” demonstrators if security forces began killing them. Human rights groups say the death toll has reached over 200 as the protests, sparked by a severe economic crisis in the country, have spread, with protesters explicitly calling for regime change.

The president wrote on Truth Social on Saturday that “Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before” and that the “USA stands ready to help!!!” 

Trump has floated the possibility of regime change in Iran before. During the country’s June war with Israel, when the U.S. struck nuclear sites inside Iran, Trump wrote on social media that the U.S. knows “exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] is hiding. He is an easy target, but is safe there — We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.” Later, he wrote, “It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change,’ but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why wouldn’t there be a Regime change??? MIGA!!!”

GOP lawmakers have voiced their support for renewed U.S. strikes on Iran, with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) sharing a message to Khamenei on Fox News last week: “You need to understand, if you keep killing your people who are demanding a better life, Donald J. Trump is gonna kill you.”