Two Iranian sources told The New York Times that the regime's armed forces are monitoring and preparing for the possibility of an expanded war, should U.S. President Donald Trump carry out his threats to strike the capital Tehran and critical infrastructure. If he does so, the sources claimed, Iran will expand the fighting on a regional level—including an attack on Tel Aviv—alongside a request for the Houthi rebels in Yemen to close the Bab el-Mandeb strait, a shipping route connecting the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea.