Iran live updates: Trump admin prepares options, including 'mother of all bombs'

Officials have prepared a range of options for the president to consider.

President Donald Trump announced "major combat operations" against Iran on Feb. 28, with massive joint U.S.-Israeli strikes targeting military, government and infrastructure sites.

Despite a memorandum of understanding signed by both countries in June aimed at ending the war, talks broke down and the U.S. and Iran renewed strikes, with the strategic Strait of Hormuz as the primary flashpoint.

Across the region, fighting in Yemen between the Iranian-backed Houthis and Saudi-backed Yemeni forces has intensified in recent weeks and the militia group has also launched strikes on Saudi Arabia.

Top administration and defense officials have prepared a range of options for the president to consider as he weighs further military escalation in Iran, sources told ABC News.

The list of options prepared by officials includes the use of the Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb known as the "mother of all bombs," according to sources familiar with the matter.

The president has not made a decision, according to sources. Trump has been meeting with top officials as he considers next steps in the war with Iran and is regularly presented with a range of options.

Trump has said he will not strike Iran before the midterm election. On the campaign trail, he vows the war will end soon but it's unclear how that will happen.

The president used the MOAB during his first administration to attack an Islamic State cave complex in 2017. The bomb is the largest U.S. non-nuclear weapon.

A White House official told ABC News, "We do not comment on sensitive military plans that may or may not exist. President Trump keeps all options on the table to ensure that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon."

When asked about the bomb in an interview with Newsmax on Thursday evening, Trump said "it's not nuclear at all. This is just a extremely large bomb. It's like a tiny nuclear bomb, and -- but the mother of all bombs is one big bomb, but it's not nuclear. I wouldn't use nuclear. We don't have to. We're the greatest nuclear power in the world."

France has started deploying military assets in Saudi Arabia, a spokesperson for the French Foreign Ministry, Pascal Confavreux, confirmed in a press conference Thursday.

"You know that the Houthi attacks in Yemen and against Saudi Arabia threaten not only Saudi Arabia's security and the region's energy security, but you also know that the President announced on September 24th that France would support the defense of Saudi energy infrastructure, particularly the Yanbu East-West Corridor. And this support is currently being deployed," Confavreux said in a news conference.

French President Emmanuel Macron said last month that France would send troops and defense systems to Saudi Arabia to help protect the Red Sea port city of Yanbu, ‌‌a key hub for energy transport.