Kan reports Trump has directed CENTCOM to draft Iran strike plan with no deadline

Trump has pledged no strikes on Iran before November 3, and Tehran says the Strait of Hormuz blockade must be lifted first.

Trump has directed US Central Command, known as CENTCOM, to draft a strike plan against Iran with no deadline, Kan reports. The directive covers planning only and does not set a date for any strike.

Trump has publicly pledged no strikes on Iran before November 3. On October 22 he said flows through the Strait of Hormuz now exceed pre-conflict levels. Iran's Fars news agency reports that Iran has stopped illicit vessel traffic there. Talks on reopening the Strait have stalled since late September. Tehran wants the blockade lifted first, and Iran disputes US terms. A US envoy said Washington is ready for a long standoff with Iran. Trump has also said the US could take all of the oil in Iran, a step beyond his earlier lines that the war would end 'very soon' and that Iran had been 'finished off'.

Oil futures had their sharpest weekly drop since April. Trump has invoked the Defense Production Act to boost petroleum and refining capacity.

A directive to draft plans is not an order to act. It fits a pattern seen since early October, in which Pentagon planning has run alongside Trump's pledge not to strike before the midterm elections on November 3. On October 8, that pledge capped the risk premium on crude oil, the extra price markets had built in for conflict, below $90.50 a barrel. The directive sets no deadline, so the gap traders have been told to watch, between drafting a contingency and giving an order, is unchanged rather than narrowed. Trump has repeatedly denied decisions that were later shown to have been made before earlier strikes. A directive with no date therefore carries less immediate weight for markets than one with a date would. Equity risk appetite tied to Middle East escalation remains sensitive to any sign that the gap is closing, though this report alone does not show that it is.