Both Sides Are Preparing To Greatly Escalate The Great Middle East War, And So The Global Energy Crisis And The Global Food Crisis Will Both Intensify

October 22, 2026 by Michael

For months, the skeptics kept assuring us that peace was coming to the Middle East. They were wrong. Anyone that believes that there will be peace in the Middle East has a fundamental misunderstanding of what is at stake. Israel and Iran consider one another to be existential threats. The Iranians will never stop until Israel is completely defeated, and Israel will never stop until the current regime in Iran is gone. As for the U.S., President Trump keeps telling us over and over again that Iran will never be allowed to produce nuclear weapons, but the Iranians will never make the nuclear compromises that he is seeking. So more conflict is coming. In fact, both sides are feverishly preparing to greatly escalate the Great Middle East War, and that is going to have enormous implications for every man, woman and child on the entire planet.

I have been telling my readers that the next chapter of the Great Middle East War is not likely to erupt until after the midterms, but if one side suddenly decides to make a really dramatic move more fighting could erupt at any time.
Let me give you an example.
The IRGC just announced that if commercial vessels continue to attempt to travel through the southern route through the Strait of Hormuz near the coast of Oman, the Iranian military will respond by striking U.S. bases in the region…
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps threatens to strike American bases across the Middle East if the US military continues to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz.
“The US military must know that if this trend continues, the conflict will extend to its bases in the region,” the Guards say in a statement on their Sepah News website.
The Iranians know that if they launch missiles at our bases, the U.S. military will strike back really hard.
But apparently they are quite serious about this…



This isn’t going to stop tankers from trying to get through.
Overnight, Iran attacked four more oil tankers, and three others that were attempting to sneak through the southern route hit Iranian mines…
Iran said Thursday its navy hit seven oil tankers traveling through the Strait of Hormuz, threatening to exacerbate regional tensions and the global energy crisis that is driving inflation.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’s (IRGC) navy claimed in a statement to have hit four tankers that were transferring oil. The other three ships hit naval mines and were immobilized as a result, according to The Associated Press. The IRGC added in its statement that some of the vessels remained ablaze as of Thursday morning.
Iranian state TV also reported that seven ships were hit while traversing the strait. If confirmed, it would mark the largest single-day incident involving vessels in the waterway since the start of the war in February.
Now we shall wait to see if Iranian attacks on U.S. bases begin.
If they actually follow through on this new threat, there will be fireworks.
General Mohsen Rezaei just told Drop Site that Iran has already selected valuable U.S. targets to hit in case more fighting erupts…
Iran’s top security official, Gen. Mohsen Rezaei, the Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council and personal representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, told Drop Site that, in the event of an attack, Iran still has capacity to continue launching missiles and drones at various U.S. assets across the region in retaliation and that it would expand its range of targets.
“If the question is whether Iran still has the ability to continue missile and drone operations, the answer is yes,” Rezaei said in an exclusive written interview. “The United States has valuable assets in the region. In the event of war, cables, data centers and artificial intelligence facilities could also come within range. If the conflict begins again, we will have a broader plan.”
And Rezaei is also warning that Iran still has “capabilities” that it has not shown yet…
Rezaei said Iran did not use all its capabilities in previous stages. It introduced more capabilities into operations in proportion to the intensity of the war and is ready for the next stage.
I have written about these capabilities over and over again.
But the mainstream media wants all of us to pretend that they don’t exist.
In the end, we shall see who was right and who was wrong.
Meanwhile, the U.S. has been pulling staff from embassies all over the Middle East and evacuating troops from bases that are likely to get targeted by the Iranians…
The US military has been quietly evacuating its troops in the Middle East and the State Department is reducing its staff at diplomatic posts across the region amid ongoing threats and as President Donald Trump considers launching a major strike on Iran.
Troops stationed at bases in Jordan, Qatar and Kuwait have been ordered to move in recent days, a US official and two people familiar with the orders told NBC News.
Meanwhile, the chiefs of mission at multiple diplomatic posts in the Middle East were notified on Wednesday that their posts would begin operating with a reduced staff, two US officials told the outlet.
This reminds me so much of what we witnessed just prior to previous rounds of fighting with Iran.
Obviously preparations are being made for something big.
An anonymous U.S. official that is being quoted by Drop Site has admitted that “CENTCOM is putting all the pieces into place to renew major combat operations”…
A U.S. official confirmed to Drop Site that military assets are being moved rapidly into place in preparation for an expected green light from Trump. Among the American officials pushing for renewed attacks is U.S. Central Command chief Gen. Bradley Cooper, the official said. “CENTCOM is putting all the pieces into place to renew major combat operations,” added the official, who is not authorized to discuss war plans. He was skeptical the war would resume before the Israeli elections, but conceded, “We did start Epic Fury without all our assets in place.”
The USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier and the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit are heading to the Middle East, bringing approximately 10,000 additional sailors and Marines to the region. The Roosevelt, which departed Japan on Monday, could reach the region by the end of next week ahead of its initially expected deployment slated for late November. It will join the USS George H.W. Bush and USS George Washington, both currently in the Arabian Sea.
It appears that it is just a matter of time before we start bombing Iran again.
According to The New York Times, plans have already been drawn up for a massive campaign of airstrikes following the midterm elections…
The United States and Israel have drawn up plans for renewed military strikes on Iran following the American midterm elections on November 3, according to a Wednesday report.
Citing US officials and others briefed on the matter, The New York Times reported that the US and Israel have ramped up military drills ahead of what it said would be “a short but intensive operation,” including flyovers of Iran’s western neighbor Iraq to simulate strike maneuvers.
Possible targets are Iranian energy sites, nuclear facilities, and arsenals of missiles and drones, the report said. Officials quoted by the newspaper claimed another major round of strikes could crater the Islamic Republic’s economy and, in doing so, force Tehran into diplomatic concessions.
It is being reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t want to wait until after the midterm elections for fighting to resume.
He intended to conduct airstrikes on Iranian targets earlier in October, but that move was vetoed by President Trump…
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu planned to carry out strikes against Iran earlier this month, but US President Donald Trump opposed reigniting the fighting before the US midterm elections, the Financial Times reported Wednesday, citing anonymous sources.
Three people familiar with the matter told the UK newspaper that the Israel Defense Forces was ready to carry out strikes on the weekend of October 10 to target Iranian nuclear facilities and regime sites, as well as civilian infrastructure including energy plants.
However, the unnamed sources said that Trump decided not to restart the conflict before the US midterms on November 3. Israel is also imminently heading to the polls, with Netanyahu facing a tough reelection battle in next Tuesday’s Knesset election.
So for now we wait, but without a doubt Israel is ready to go.
In fact, the Times of Israel is reporting that dozens of Israeli aircraft just flew toward Iran as part of a “military exercise”…
Dozens of Israeli fighter jets and refueling aircraft reportedly flew over Syria and Iraq toward the Iranian border earlier this week, following a flight path resembling an attack on Iran.
The aircraft turned around shortly before reaching Iranian territory and returned to Israel, according to an Axios report citing unnamed US and Israeli officials, following an earlier Fox News report on the matter.
Israel informed Washington of the sortie in advance, saying it was a military exercise and a show of force intended to deter Iran from attacking ahead of next week’s election, the sources told Axios.
If the Iranians had decided that a huge wave of airstrikes was imminent, they could have responded by launching dozens of ballistic missiles at Israel.
We came far closer to a major incident than most people realize.
Of course it is inevitable that more missiles will soon be flying back and forth.
This week, Netanyahu once again publicly stated that ending the regime in Iran is the goal…
Overthrowing the Islamic Republic is the only way to eliminate Iran’s nuclear threat, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday, accusing Tehran of trying to revive its nuclear program.
Speaking at a military officers’ graduation ceremony, Netanyahu said Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei had decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and had “pulled the pin.”
“There is only one way to remove this threat: toppling the regime in Iran,” Netanyahu said.
Israel is not going to stop.
Neither will Iran.
A lot more fighting is on the horizon, and the global energy crisis is going to get even worse.
On Thursday, the price of Brent crude briefly hit $113 a barrel…
Oil prices climbed Thursday on worries over a possible escalation in the Middle East conflict as the U.S. reportedly plans to resume strikes against Iran.
Brent crude futures rose 2.8% to $111.81 a barrel as of 11:07 a.m. ET after nearly reaching $113 earlier. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude gained 1.7% to $98.83 after breaking $100 earlier.
Needless to say, the global food crisis is going to get even worse too.
Painfully high fuel and fertilizer prices are financially crippling farmers, and the Super El Niño in the Pacific is causing widespread droughts in key agricultural areas all over the globe. For example, just check out what is happening in France…
France’s 2026 grain-maize yield is forecast to fall to 6.3 tonnes per hectare (2.81 short tons per acre), its lowest level since 1991, after repeated heatwaves and persistent drought damaged crops. Agreste estimates production, including seed maize, at 7.3 million tonnes (8 million short tons), nearly half the 2025 level, as grain-maize area fell 28% and yield declined 27%.
The world is not going to grow enough food this year, and hunger will intensify.
Already, severe hunger is at historic levels in nations such as Sudan and Afghanistan…
Drought tied to the El Niño weather pattern has hit over half the country, causing crop failures in some places and costing households food and income, the IPC said. Crops are growing poorly on 64% of farmland in North Darfur, and on roughly half the land in West and South Kordofan and South Darfur.
In May, close to 19.5 million people, over 40% of Sudan’s population, faced acute food insecurity at high levels, the IPC found. The IPC placed 135,000 of them at Phase 5, its worst category, which means starvation, very high malnutrition and people dying of disease or hunger.
In Afghanistan, malnutrition has reached record levels and more than a third of the population is going severely hungry, the United Nations warned earlier this month.
We are facing a global energy crisis, a global fertilizer crisis, a Super El Niño and World War III all at the same time.
And every single one of them is expected to intensify during the months ahead.
We really are in unprecedented territory, and I have a feeling that global events will soon spiral completely out of control.
Michael’s new book entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

Both Sides Are Preparing To Greatly Escalate The Great Middle East War, And So The Global Energy Crisis And The Global Food Crisis Will Both Intensify