By Dave DeCamp / Antiwar.com
The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that President Trump has told his top officials that he approved plans to attack Iran but is holding off on giving the final order for now.
Sources told the Journal that Trump was waiting to see if Iran would agree to give up its nuclear program, which is almost certainly not going to happen. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has rejected the US president’s calls for surrender, and Tehran’s position is that it won’t negotiate while under Israeli attack.
Iran also has no reason to trust the US at the moment since Trump backed Israel’s attack amid negotiations between Washington and Tehran. Trump has refused to say if he will launch airstrikes on Iran, telling reporters on Wednesday, “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.”
The Journal report didn’t specify what attack plans Trump approved, but it would likely involve US airstrikes on the Fordow nuclear plant, which is buried deep underground, making it impossible to do significant damage without US bunker buster bombs and the US heavy bombers needed to drop them.
Iran has made clear it would hit back if the US launches airstrikes, and many US bases in the region are in range of Iranian missiles. Trump could be planning to launch limited airstrikes to damage Fordow, but American casualties could lead the US into deeper involvement in the war.
Israeli officials are expecting the US to intervene with direct attacks on Iran soon. “The whole operation is premised on the fact that the US will join at some point,” an Israeli official told CNN on Tuesday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched the war based on the pretext of preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, but US intelligence had assessed that Tehran wasn’t seeking a nuclear bomb.
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Dave DeCamp
Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.
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