Trump aides reportedly seek to contain Iran war as Tehran launches more strikes

U.S. President Donald Trump’s top aides are pushing to keep the Iran war from escalating before November’s midterm elections, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

But the report came shortly before Iran launched more missile and drone strikes at U.S. bases in Kuwait, according to a report from Tehran-run Press TV. Kuwaiti Armed Forces also said their air defense systems were intercepting “hostile targets" in the early hours of Thursday.  

Reuters reported, citing four people familiar with the matter, that Trump’s aides were pushing to contain the conflict to limit Republican losses in the November elections.

The conflict, which has now stretched past the six-month mark, has proven to be deeply unpopular with American voters, who have criticized the administration for neglecting domestic policy in favor of another overseas conflict.  

But the White House will consider ramping up military action after the November 3 vote, Reuters reported. 

Military tensions between the U.S. and Iran re-emerged in late-August. Washington had initially struck some targets in Iran near the Strait of Hormuz, drawing retaliation from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp. 

U.S. Central Command asserted that the new strikes were aimed at further limiting Iran’s ability to hit targets in the Strait of Hormuz. 

Iran had launched waves of drone and missile strikes at U.S. infrastructure in surrounding Gulf countries, and had warned of more such attacks. 

The renewed fighting was the worst between the two countries since late-July, as a brief pause in hostilities, aimed at hashing out a deal, yielded little progress. 

Trump said on Wednesday that the renewed campaign against Iran would not persist for an extended period. But the war has now stretched well past his initial timeline of four to six weeks of conflict. 

Oil prices pared losses early-Thursday following the latest strikes, as Washington maintained its naval blockade against Iran, while Tehran reiterated that the Strait of Hormuz remained closed.

Recent shipping data showed traffic in the key waterway– which supplied a fifth of the world’s oil consumption prior to the war– remained at a fraction of pre-war levels.