The United States is deploying a third aircraft carrier strike group and an amphibious force carrying more than 2,000 Marines toward waters around Iran, a U.S. official told Al Jazeera, with matching color from CNBC, The Hill, Fortune/AP, and USNI News on the Theodore Roosevelt and Makin Island movements. The USS Theodore Roosevelt left San Diego bound for the Central Command region; the Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group, with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard USS Anchorage and USS John P. Murtha, followed. Officials described a force picture that could put three carriers and two amphibious groups around Iran by late October or November.

President Donald Trump has kept strike options public. He told Time a return to bombing after the Nov. 3 midterms is “possible,” told Fox he expects to “win the war” soon, and rejected Iran’s Qatar-brokered plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for ending the U.S. port blockade and sanctions steps. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said forces are “ready to go.” Parallel pressure continued Thursday: Treasury/OFAC sanctioned Iran’s auto and rail sectors under Operation Economic Outcast, and the UK Maritime Trade Operations reported a tanker struck by an unknown projectile in Hormuz, causing a fire with the crew reported safe.

Backstory: the conflict is in its eighth month after the U.S. resumed a naval blockade of Iranian ports. Indirect talks through Doha have not produced a published reopen text; contested reporting says Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s New York delegation to leave early after stalled shuttle talks — treat that leave order as contested until both sides publish matching accounts. Watch carrier arrival windows, any formal published U.S. mediation text, and oil/shipping desks on Hormuz. Engage: Centcom and Treasury primary releases for the next documents.