White House insiders claim Trump is considering the use of a targeted strike on Iran as negotiators are scheduled to meet on Thursday, with a second much larger assault to topple the country’s leaders
President Trump has said he is planning a massive strike on Iran, intended to drive the leadership from power.
Negotiators from the US and Iran are scheduled to meet in Geneva on Thursday in a last-ditch attempt to avoid military conflict.
However, Trump insiders have said the president is weighing plans to conduct an initial strike in the coming days, if negotiations fail, to demonstrate to Iran’s leaders that they have no choice about giving up their ability to make a nuclear bomb.
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If negotiations, and Trump’s proposed initial strike, fail to convince Iran’s religious leadership to scrap their nuke plans – then the US president has left open the possibility of a much larger military assault later this year to topple Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei, the New York Times reports.
There are doubts about whether that goal could be achieved with air strikes alone, even within the Trump administration. Though no final decisions have been made, insiders said, the news comes as two massive aircraft carrier strike groups, with dozens of fighter jets, bomber and refuelling aircraft mass within striking distance of Iran.
Mr Trump discussed plans for strikes on Iran at a meeting in the White House situation room on Wednesday with vice president JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, General Dan Caine and the head of the CIA John Ratcliffe.
Sources with knowledge of the meeting said that Trump had asked the general what the army could do with the current forces in the area. General Caine was not able to promise success in any attack on Iran, sources said, unlike previous discussions about operations inside Venezuela where he had been much more confident.
Earlier the US had been considering using special forces raids to destroy Iranian manufacturing and enrichment facilities inside Iran, some of which are buried deep underground beyond the reach of airstrikes, the Times reported. However these planned commando raids were said to have been shelved for now.
Iranian officials have said they are not willing to give up their ability to enrich uranium, while Trump’s chief negotiators have said the president is unwilling to accept anything other than a full end of all enrichment operations in Iran.
However a new proposal may allow both sides to save face. A new proposal is reportedly being considered by both sides that would allow Iran to maintain a very limited nuclear enrichment programme solely for purposes of medical research and treatments in the hopes the deal could provide an off-ramp to military conflict.
This would allow the US to claim all Iranian military uranium enrichment has been stopped, while Iran could claim it has been allowed to keep some research reactors.
Mr Trump’s “vast armada” of aircraft carriers, aircraft and naval vessels represents the largest buildup of US armed forces in the area since the start of the Iraq war.
