U.S. President Donald J. Trump is weighing several options for dramatically escalating the Iran War should his latest push for diplomacy fail, with Pentagon officials preparing for the next phase of war by drawing up scenarios for deploying troops to seize various targets within Iran, more than half a dozen people familiar with the discussions told CNN.

Officials have developed options for capturing Kharg Island, which handles roughly 90% of Iran’s crude exports, or authorizing a bombing raid aimed at effectively wiping out all oil infrastructure on the island in the Persian Gulf. And the administration has examined the potential for taking over other strategically placed islands near Iran that might weaken the regime’s ability to threaten tankers trying to traverse the Strait of Hormuz.

White House officials believe that taking Kharg Island in particular would “totally bankrupt” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), one official told CNN, potentially paving the way for a definitive end to the Iran War.

New pixelated image posted by the White House, with this one appearing to not be of President Trump and instead of Vice President JD Vance.

A U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle takes off from a base in the Middle East for combat operations against Iran, in support of Operation Epic Fury.

The White House and the Pentagon are considering sending at least 10,000 additional combat troops to the Middle East in the coming days, significantly increasing the number of ground forces the United Stated has in the region as another signal that a major ground operation in Iran is being seriously prepared, a senior U.S. defense official confirmed to Axios.

Defense official expects the decision to be made next week and said the troops will be from different combat units than the ones which have already been sent to the region, while more reinforcements, including several fighter jet squadrons and thousands of troops, are expected to arrive in the Middle East in the coming days and weeks, as President Trump continues to consider escalation against Iran.

The Head of the Ugandan Armed Forces has announced that “any talk of destroying or defeating Israel” would bring Uganda to the side of Israel in the Iran War. “If Israel needs help, it only need ask,” said Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the son of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

Explosions reported within the last hour over Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

According to Barak Ravid, U.S. Vice President JD Vance had a difficult call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday where he said that Israeli assessments for toppling the Iranian regime were not realistic enough, saying "You were too optimistic in your assessments regarding the overthrow of the regime in Iran."

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio attended the G7 Foreign Ministers Meeting in France today, where key topics were the Ukraine War and the conflict in the Middle East.

Since the start of Operation Epic Fury, the ongoing strike campaign against the Islamic Republic of Iran which began roughly four weeks ago on February 28, the U.S. Navy has utilized over 850 BGM-109 Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise Missiles (TLAM) on targets throughout Iran, burning through precision weapons at a rate that has alarmed some Pentagon officials, according to the Washington Post.

Prior to the start of the Iran War, it was assessed by the American Enterprise Institute that the Navy had an inventory of between 4,000-4,500 Tomahawks, with only a few hundred being produced every year, while other naval analysts have said the number could be much lower, perhaps closer to 3,000, following their extensive use in recent operations, including the Trump Administration’s strikes last year in Iran, Yemen and Nigeria.

In addition to the 850 Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles (TLAM) that have been expended, the Washington Post reports that the U.S. military has also has fired more than 1,000 of its much more advanced and limited supply of air-defense interceptor missiles in defending against retaliatory attacks by Iran. These include hundreds of interceptors fired by the U.S. Army’s MIM-104 “Patriot” Surface-to-Air Missile and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) Systems, and SM-3 Exoatmospheric Ballistic Missile Interceptors launched by Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers with the U.S. Navy.

According to Reuters, citing sources with knowledge on the matter, the U.S. can only determine with certainty that they have destroyed about a third of Iran’s missile arsenal. Another third of the arsenal, buried in underground facilities that have been targeted in ongoing strikes, cannot be counted with certainty as destroyed.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is blocking the promotion of four Army officers to be one-star generals, two of which are Black and two women on a list of roughly three dozen officers up for promotion, in a highly unusual move that has prompted some senior military officials to question whether the officers are being singled out because of their race or gender, according to The New York Times.

Hegseth had been pressing senior Army leaders, including Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll, for months to remove the officers’ names, military officials said. But Secretary Driscoll, citing the officers’ decades-long records of exemplary service, had repeatedly refused. Earlier this month, Hegseth broke the logjam by unilaterally striking the officers’ names from the list, though it is not clear he has the legal authority to do so. The list is currently being reviewed by the White House, which is expected to sent for final approval to the Senate.

The frustrations with Defense Secretary Hegseth’s approach came to a boil last summer during a heated exchange between Ricky Buria, Hegseth’s Chief of Staff, and Army Secretary Driscoll about a separate promotion. Buria chastised the Driscoll for selecting Maj. Gen. Antoinette R. Gant, a combat engineer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, to take command of the Military District of Washington, said three current and former defense and administration officials familiar with the exchange, with Buria telling Driscoll that President Trump would not want to stand next to a Black female officer at military events, the officials told The New York Times.

Driscoll was shocked. “The President is not a racist or sexist,” he told Mr. Buria, according to the officials. Driscoll then raised the issue with a senior official at the White House who agreed with his assessment of President Trump. Hegseth’s office retreated from the issue, while General Gant began serving in the position last summer and was promoted to two-star rank in early March. The Pentagon did not address Hegseth’s decision to strike the four officers from the promotion list or respond to questions about Mr. Buria’s interaction with Secretary Driscoll.

The Israeli Air Force bombed two of Iran’s largest steel factories a short while ago, Khuzestan Steel near Ahvaz and Mobarakeh Steel in Isfahan, both which are partially owned by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to Israeli security sources and the Iranian state-run Fars News Agency. The strikes were directly ordered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz.

The Iranian response to the Trump Administration’s 15-point framework for a peace deal is expected on Friday, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CBS News.

Following today’s Israeli strikes against two of Iran’s major steel processing plants, the Iranian state-run Tasnim News Agency, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has published a graphic highlighting and warning of retaliatory attacks soon against a number of steel factories in Israel and the Gulf Nations.