US forces in the Middle East are prepared to launch new, potentially major, military operations against Iran “within 96 hours of receiving� an order from President Donald Trump, according to two US officials.

Sufficient forces are now deployed in the region to carry out the potential attacks, the sources said. The scope of new US military operations would likely go beyond efforts to simply “mow the lawn� or maintain the status quo by striking radars, launchers and other Iranian assets that can be quickly reconstituted — as has been the case since Trump halted full combat operations earlier this year, the sources added.

“It will be a big effort,� one of the officials told CNN. That view has been echoed by other current and former US officials familiar with internal military planning discussions — some of whom say it is a question of when, not if, Trump will issue a go-order. They believe it could come any time before the end of the year, though most likely after the US midterm elections.

US officials acknowledge challenges, cite potential threat

Iranian forces are now more familiar with US tactics, and it would therefore be harder for the American military to effectively destroy all potential intended targets. However, leaders in US Central Command and the Pentagon have been developing a wide-ranging target list, which includes Iranian energy infrastructure, military sites and nuclear facilities.

Officials say that Trump has not made up his mind on what he will do after the midterms but that he appears to be leaning toward ordering major action. But officials also caution that Trump has appeared in the past to lean toward certain actions only to back off at the last moment.

The White House declined to comment.

A senior Pentagon official told CNN in a statement, “The Department is a planning organization, and its job is to develop and execute military options ordered by the President.�

Recent US intelligence assessments indicate Iran and Houthi rebels are taking the possibility of renewed attacks by the US and potentially Israel very seriously, according to two additional sources familiar with the matter.

If the US and Israel launch new military operations against Iran, Tehran and the Houthis would likely retaliate immediately by targeting American personnel and facilities around the region — and potentially beyond, the sources familiar with those recent US intelligence assessments said.

An unclassified October 23 memo from Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton to Secretary of State Marco Rubio says US intelligence has found that “Iran has substantially increased efforts to target US personnel� and plotting efforts “have reached advanced stages in both the Middle East and certain other countries,� CNN previously reported.

US intelligence officials believe Iran and the Houthis are unlikely to carry out preemptive escalatory attacks against American personnel or Israel at this point but would not hesitate to respond if Iran is targeted first by US or Israeli forces, one of the sources familiar with the latest American intelligence assessments noted.

But the regional threat posed by Iran and the Houthis is one reason why the US is expected to continue quietly pulling personnel from its embassies across the Middle East in the coming days, the source said.

While the US Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, is the only American diplomatic facility in the region under ordered departure, one of the sources told CNN that others are expected to receive similar directives and those that do not will be scaled down under a personnel cap.

Additionally, nonessential US military personnel who were expected to deploy to the Middle East as part of the next troop rotation have been told they are no longer being sent, according to a US official, underscoring the possibility of looming regional escalation.

Adm. Brad Cooper, the CENTCOM commander, visited the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday as the US military maintains its blockade on Iranian ports and assists shipping traffic through the critical waterway.

Cooper “observed the current operational environment� while flying over the strait in a helicopter, CENTCOM said, adding that he met with service members who cleared the waterway of Iranian mines.

“We continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with our Gulf partners and the shipping industry,� Cooper said in a news release. “This visit underscores our strong commitment to continued freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.�

Despite the increase in tankers transiting the strait, oil prices remain high, partly due to the threat of possible Iranian attacks. One US official acknowledged the status quo around the strait is “untenable� for the long term, and barring a last-minute diplomatic breakthrough, is one reason Trump may turn to military action — despite questions about whether the White House has a broader strategy for ending the conflict.

Israel pushing for more strikes

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been pushing to carry out new attacks against Iran, but US officials have requested he delay until the Trump administration is ready to conduct joint operations, according to two US officials and an Israeli security source.

“Netanyahu really wanted and tried to convince Trump for a joint attack in Iran before the elections, and Trump did not give a green light,� the Israeli security source told CNN. The prime minister’s office said this was “fake news.�

One reason Trump declined is because Israel Defense Forces chief of staff Eyal Zamir told US Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, that it would harm the elections in Israel and lead to their postponement, the Israeli security source added.

Israel’s Channel 12 News reported Sunday there was an “unprecedented� confrontation between Zamir and Netanyahu fewer than 48 hours before Tuesday’s vote. According to the report, Zamir received a directive from the political echelon related to Iran but requested an in-depth discussion and legal authorizations before carrying it out, fearing the action could lead to a miscalculation that could trigger an immediate conflict.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said the report was “completely baseless and false.�

Israel was preparing for the possibility of launching additional attacks against Iran in the last week or so and had been lobbying US officials to support and complement those new strikes, a third source briefed on the matter told CNN. But senior US officials — including Trump — told Israel to hold off, instead signaling the two countries would launch joint operations soon.

Israel appears to have delayed plans in the immediate term for additional strikes but is building up for potential joint operations with the US — likely after the American midterm elections, all of the sources said.

Israel seemed to agree to delaying new strikes on Iran in part because it needs US support for missile defense, the source briefed on the matter added. Iran and the Houthis would likely retaliate against an attack and Israel’s defensive munitions have been strained during the war.

Recent US intelligence assessments indicate that Netanyahu and his allies still lack a clear strategic objective beyond demonstrating some sort of “progress� and continuing to degrade the Iranian regime, one of the sources familiar with the reports added.

Netanyahu said this week in a speech at an IDF graduation ceremony that his directive to the IDF, the Mossad and other security branches is to topple the regime in Iran.

“The plans are ready, waiting for Trump’s approval, could be after the midterms,� the same source told CNN.

This story has been updated with additional developments Monday.

CNN’s Kevin Liptak contributed to this report.

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From thousands of miles away, a Texas dad, hiding in a country he doesn't know, reminded his son to vacuum the carpet each week.

Moussa Diawara is from Mali, but spent nearly half his life living in the United States, where he married, had two U.S. citizen children, worked and paid taxes. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported him to Ghana over the summer. Diawara has no connection to Ghana, but a judge had issued an order that he couldn't be deported to Mali, because it was likely he'd be persecuted there. Diawara said that within days of his arrival in Ghana, local officials forced him onto a flight to Mali. 

"I still say to myself, 'This isn't real,'" Diawara said. 

Third-country deportations are a reality for many as President Trump's administration seeks to carry out the largest deportation in U.S. history. When the U.S. government decides an immigrant can't stay in the U.S., and can't be sent to their home country, it can send them to a third country. A 60 Minutes investigation found that some of the third countries accepting deportees from the U.S. are routinely sending them back to the very countries they fled — locations where U.S. immigration judges ruled they would likely be persecuted or tortured.

What happened to Moussa Diawara

Diawara, 57, came to the U.S. on a tourist visa when he was 32. He overstayed that visa, and later applied for refugee protection, arguing he would be persecuted if he were to return to Mali. Diawara had converted to Christianity, and Mali's a Muslim-majority nation with an Islamist insurgency. He has no criminal record. 

In 2012, a U.S. immigration judge ruled that Diawara could not be deported to Mali, but the U.S. could find a safe alternative if it ever wanted to remove him from the country. As a result of the ruling, Diawara was able to get a U.S. work permit. He worked as an Uber driver and was finishing a night shift on July 11 of this year when he found ICE agents waiting for him at the suburban Houston home where he lived with his wife and children, who are U.S. citizens.

Diawara spent three weeks in ICE detention in Texas, unable to speak to his lawyer or a judge. He was loaded onto a plane and deported to Ghana, a country he never visited or had any ties to, on July 31. In Ghana, Diawara said he and others were detained in a hotel by armed guards and were not allowed to make phone calls.

"I cannot call my wife, I can't contact my lawyer. I can't talk to no one," Diawara said. "I tell them, 'This is kidnapping. You guys kidnapped us.'"

60 Minutes first got in touch with Diawara in August. At the time, he was homeless and hiding in Mali, fearing for his safety after Ghanaian officials dropped him there with no money or identification. 

He was able to escape to another country with the help of some local truckers after several weeks in Mali. Diawara asked for the country to not be disclosed out of concern for his safety.

Diawara acknowledged that the U.S. had a right to deport him, but not to Mali. And he believes the U.S. knew Ghana would send him there. U.S. officials gave him a medical document on the flight to Ghana with the destination listed as "SHRC Mali" — SHRC stands for Special High Risk Charter, referring to the kind of flight Diawara was on. 

"So they know 100% I'm going to Mali," Diawara said. 

Both of his bag tags, issued by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), also list the destination as Mali.

"Well, he wasn't flown to Mali," said James Percival, DHS's top lawyer. "He was flown to Ghana, but I can't speak to why that piece of paper says that."

A DHS spokesperson later followed up with a statement, saying the bag tags were "produced by contractors" who "are not part of the process that determines...the destination." The medication form, the statement said, was a "clerical error." Ghana's government declined to comment.

DHS says Ghana had provided the U.S. with "diplomatic assurances" for Diawara's safety. The agency also questioned the credibility of Diawara's arguments for fearing persecution in Mali.

Democrats and immigration attorney critique third-country deportations

Past administrations rarely deported people in Diawara's situation. But as part of the Trump administration's mass deportation operation, ICE has deported 25,000 people to dozens of third countries that, in return, receive millions of dollars in aid or other benefits from the U.S. government.

A judge's ruling that someone can be deported, but not to their home country, is called "withholding of removal." Diawara had this protection, and so did dozens of others on his deportation flight, 60 Minutes found. 

There were 63 people on Diawara's third-country deportation flight, which left Texas on July 30, and stopped in Sierra Leone and the Central African Republic before landing in Ghana. Seventeen of the 19 people 60 Minutes reached who were deported to Ghana said they were subsequently sent, against their will, to countries U.S. immigration judges had ruled they should not be returned to, including Niger, Mali, Nigeria, Gambia and Guinea.

Immigration attorney Meredyth Yoon said she believes there's no way U.S. officials don't know what Ghana is doing to the people the U.S. deports there. She said the U.S. government was warned about Ghana's conduct in a lawsuit last year. Despite this, the U.S. sent 10 more third-country deportation flights to Ghana. Yoon believes it's a violation of international law. 

A 30-page report from Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democrats, commissioned by ranking member Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), slammed the administration's third-country deportation program, critiquing it as costly and saying it undermined U.S. interests.

"Through its third country deportation deals, the Trump administration is putting millions of taxpayer dollars into the hands of foreign governments, while turning a blind eye to the human costs and potentially undermining our diplomatic relationships," Shaheen said in a February press release. 

Homeland Security lawyer says third-country deportations are widely misunderstood

Percival, DHS's top lawyer, said he's not aware of any cases of Ghana sending people on to other countries against their will. He argued that third-country deportations are widely misunderstood.

Asked whether he thinks people sent to third countries are then voluntarily going back to the places they fled, Percival said, "Either they would choose to go home, and they might not always be truthful about the fact that they consented, so that's one possibility. The other possibility is that the foreign government applied their own procedures and, consistent with international law, determined that it was acceptable to return them home."

Video footage released last year shows Ghanaian officials dragging Rabbiatu Kuyateh, a nurse who lived in the U.S. for 30 years, to a flight back to her native Sierra Leone. She, like Diawara, had a withholding of removal order from the U.S. stating she couldn't be deported to her home country because she would likely be persecuted there.

Ghana isn't the only country accused of sending deportees to countries that U.S. immigration judges ruled they should not be deported to. When deportees arrive in Sierra Leone, they often get a pamphlet that says, "Sierra Leone is serving as a temporary transit location while arrangements are made to return you to your country of origin." 

Percival said there is a public safety threat associated with "this population of aliens" and added that  "every administration before President Trump absolutely abdicated their responsibility to the American people by letting criminals back on the street and doing no diplomatic efforts to get these people out of our country."

He says third countries like Eswatini and South Sudan have agreed to accept deportees with criminal records for first-degree murder, sexual assault, kidnapping, and armed robbery when their home countries refused to take them back. 

Percival said he did not know what percentage of people who had been detained and deported were violent offenders. 

Of the 63 people on Diawara's flight, 19% of the passengers had been charged with or convicted of crimes, including theft, assault, drugs or weapons possession. A 60 Minutes review found the other deportees either had a traffic violation (19%), or no criminal record at all (62%). 

"This administration is following the law that Congress has passed. There are a lot of people in this population that we talk about who committed very serious crimes," Percival said. "And people should be very happy with President Trump for getting these serious criminals out of the country."

Last month, a federal appeals court upheld a ruling in a class action lawsuit that found the Trump administration's third-country policy was unlawful because it denied deportees due process. But the Supreme Court has allowed these deportations to continue until it hears the case in December. 

Diawara fighting to get back to his family in the U.S. 

Moussa Diawara's attorney, Reuben S. Kerben, has asked a federal judge in Washington, D.C., to order that he be returned to the U.S. 

Meanwhile in Texas, Diawara's wife Barbara, a registered nurse, is waiting for him, along with their two children. Their son Corey is 16, and their daughter Chloe is 12. 

"It feels really empty without him," Corey said. 

He worries about his mom now. 

"I'm trying, you know, not to cry in front of them, to be strong for them," Barbara said, "because they need me."