According to major U.S. media reports, Donald Trump has approved the plan to attack Iran, but has not yet made a final decision on whether or not to strike the country. As reported by CBS, so far the US leader has avoided entering the Middle East conflict, with the hope that Tehran would agree to abandon its nuclear program.
On Wednesday, however, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, rejected Trump’s demand for unconditional surrender. The US is now reportedly considering striking Iran’s Fordow site, an underground facility where uranium is enriched.
According to sources familiar with the situation, senior U.S. officials as well as key leaders of federal agencies are already be preparing for the possibility of an attack in the coming days, presumably over the weekend.
Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday that he has “ideas as to what to do” and that he prefers to make the “final decision one second before it’s due” because the situation in the Middle East is fluid. The president’s openness to war is a reversal of his public statements last week, when he urged diplomatic talks to reach a nuclear disarmament agreement with Iran.
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham has been one of the central figures urging the president to consider military action against Tehran. “He gave them a chance for diplomacy. I think they made a miscalculation,” Graham said of Iran on Wednesday. “The sooner we end this threat to mankind, the better.”
For years, the MAGA leader has called for the United States to keep out of conflicts abroad, and he ran his last campaign based on the message that he would end the current wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, prevent another world war and focus on domestic issues. In the current scenario however, these promises seem doomed to remain unfulfilled as the situation is changing dramatically.
According to insiders, the decision to wait a few days before striking would allow Iranian leaders additional leeway to demonstrate to Trump that they are willing to give up some uranium enrichment capabilities, thereby deterring a U.S. attack. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a social media post Wednesday morning that the country remains “committed to diplomacy” and has never sought to acquire nuclear weapons.
On Friday, meanwhile, Araghchi will meet with the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, France, and Germany in Geneva, to whom he will try to reiterate Tehran’s positions on what is nuclear-related.
