President Trump has reportedly approved a plan of attack for the US to become directly involved in the Israel-Iran War.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the president told aides that he had given the green light to the proposal, but was waiting to give the final order to implement it.
So far, the US has limited its involvement to supplying Israel with weapons and technical support as it exchanges missile fire with the Islamic Republic.
But the apparent stalling of negotiations between Washington and Tehran over a new nuclear deal – caught on the thorny issue of the level of Iranian uranium enrichment – has seemingly hardened Trump’s resolve on a military response.
Axios reported yesterday that Trump had “seriously considered” launching strikes on Iranian nuclear sites during a National Security Council meeting the night on Tuesday night.
Under particular scrutiny is the heavily defended Fordow nuclear plant, which is effectively embedded into a mountain in north-western Iran.
The Israelis do not have the so-called “bunker busting” bombs required to destroy the facility, nor the B-52 bombers required to carry them – but the US does.
Latest reports suggest that, if no deal materialises, the choice facing the White House is whether to simply supply the weapons to the IDF – and train Israelis how to use them over several weeks – or to simply bomb Iran directly.
However, citing a “senior intelligence source”, CBS News reported this morning that Trump was “holding off” on putting the Pentagon’s plans for an attack into action in case a last-minute deal could be reached including a commitment from Iran to abandon its nuclear programme wholesale.
Commenting on the prospect of a strike, Trump told reporters: “I have ideas on what to do but I haven’t made a final – I like to make the final decision one second before it’s due.
"I may do it, I may not do it. The next week is going to be very big, maybe less than a week.”
He has been even more blunt on social media, calling for Iran’s “unconditional surrender”, insisting that the country “cannot have a nuclear weapon” and suggesting that the US could assassinate its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Yet Tehran has, publicly at least, shown little will to compromise on its main red line in the negotiations – the continuation of its enrichment programme in service of, it claims, a civilian nuclear energy project.
In a pre-recorded message to Iranians yesterday, Khamenei said: “The Iranian nation will not surrender.”
He also claimed that any US involvement “would be costly” for Washington, echoing previous threats that the regime would have “no mercy on the Zionists” in reference to Israel’s attacks on Iranian nuclear sites.
