American military commanders in the Persian Gulf have been granted authority to strike Iranian forces preemptively, U.S. defense officials told Fox News on Monday, signaling a hardened posture as Washington edges closer to resuming major combat operations against Tehran.

The expanded rules of engagement emerged after a day of escalating hostilities that saw Iran fire on U.S. warships, target the United Arab Emirates with missiles and drones, and dispatch fast boats against civilian shipping in the Gulf.

“The commanders on scene have all the authorities they need to protect themselves and commercial shipping,” a well-placed U.S. defense official said. Commanders may act, the official said, if “US forces see missile launchers moving or identify missiles being put on the rails or identify targets of opportunity that threaten commercial shipping.”

“We preserve the right to eliminate those threats. We don’t have to wait. We can anticipate and preempt,” the official added. “We can hit a known threat. We don’t have to wait until Iran fires first.”

The broadened authorities stop short of a return to offensive operations, which senior officials stressed remains a decision for President Donald Trump and Iran’s new leadership. But those officials acknowledged that the prospect has grown sharply more likely in the span of a single day.

“We are closer to the resumption of major combat operations than we were 24 hours ago after Iran fired on US vessels and targeted UAE today with missiles and drones and fast boats,” senior officials told Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin.

No orders have been issued to end the ceasefire reached last month, the officials said, and no directive has gone out to restart the U.S. bombing campaign. There has been, in their words, “no un-pause of the ceasefire.” The American military “stands ready to respond” and is “rearmed and retooled.”

The day’s violence stretched across the Gulf. The UAE said more than a dozen Iranian missiles and drones were launched at its territory, injuring three people. A separate Iranian drone strike sparked a fire at an oil facility, wounding three Indian nationals. The British military reported two cargo vessels ablaze off the UAE coast. The U.S. said it sank six Iranian boats that were targeting civilian ships.

The escalation came on the same day Trump launched Project Freedom, an operation aimed at restoring traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint that has been effectively sealed off in recent weeks. Rather than escort each commercial vessel individually through the strait — a posture one source described as “inefficient” — the U.S. military is constructing what officials called a layered defensive umbrella of air and sea assets backed by intensive surveillance.

One Fox source likened the distinction to a basketball coverage scheme: zone defense rather than man-to-man.
That umbrella, for now, is the limit of American military activity. Whether it stays that way will depend on choices yet to be made in Washington and Tehran.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)