Trump has settled on a "third way" of tightening economic pressure and the blockade on Iran rather than resuming the war or accepting a deal, Axios reports, citing US officials.
According to Axios, Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Jared Kushner pushed the economic "strangulation" strategy. Al Jazeera reports that the US plans to block Iran's land-based supply routes as well as its ports.
Al Jazeera also cites Reuters, which quotes an informed source as saying Vice President JD Vance favours a deal with Iran. Trump does not believe such a deal is possible right now, according to the same report.
The reported decision matches what Rubio, the US Secretary of State, said on the record in Paris on 10 November after the G7 foreign ministers' meeting. He said: "We don't need to conduct military strikes if we're achieving the same objective through economic means and economic pressure. That's not stalemate." He added: "The economic pressure on Iran is going to get even worse."
The accounts of who backed which option inside the administration, including Vance's reported position, come from anonymous sources and have not been independently checked.