By Times of Israel
US President-elect Donald Trump is weighing options to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon, including preventative airstrikes, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
The report came as Israel reportedly draws up plans for a potential attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, amid growing concern that the Islamic Republic, poised to build a bomb, could rush to finally do so; Iran and its proxies are weakened right now, after more than a year of war against Israel that began when the Hamas terror group in Gaza attacked the Jewish state on October 7, 2023.
Trump has told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent calls that he wants to avoid an Iranian breakout during his term in office, the report said — though he seeks a means of stopping the Islamic Republic from going nuclear that does not trigger a new war, especially one in which US troops would become involved, according to the report, which cited transition officials.The video player is currently playing an ad. You can skip the ad in 5 sec with a mouse or keyboard1/2
The incoming administration is currently working on a “maximum pressure 2.0” plan, the report said, recreating the policy of aggressive sanctions on Iran that Trump pursued during his first term, having pulled out of the Obama-era agreement with the country meant to limit its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
Sources familiar with the plan told the Journal that there were several different ways military pressure could be used to deter Tehran.
Firstly, they said, Washington could send more forces, ships, and warplanes to the region while also bolstering Israel’s offensive capabilities through the sale of bunker-busting bombs. If that fails, however, the US could take a more combative stance and threaten to use direct military force, the sources were quoted as saying.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, right, visits an exhibition of the country’s nuclear achievements, at his office compound in Tehran, Iran, June 11, 2023. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader, Via AP, File)
In an interview with Time Magazine published Thursday, Trump said of a potential war with Iran, “Anything can happen. It’s a very volatile situation.”
Trump considered preventative strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites during the latter part of his first term but decided against it. This time, according to the WSJ report, his administration may be open to supporting an Israeli strike against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities.
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Among the reasons Trump may be more open to military action this time cited in the report were Iran’s alleged efforts to kill the president-elect.
Israeli military officials said Thursday that they believe there is now an opportunity to strike Iran’s nuclear sites, and are continuing preparations for a potential attack, following the collapse last weekend of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, a close ally of Iran.
The Israel Defense Forces believes that Iran — isolated after the fall of the Assad regime and the weakening of its main proxy group Hezbollah in Lebanon — may push ahead further with its nuclear program and develop a bomb as it scrambles to replace its deterrence.
Iran has denied seeking nuclear weapons and says both its space program and nuclear activities are for purely civilian purposes. However, US intelligence agencies and the IAEA say Iran had an organized military nuclear program up until 2003 and continued to develop its nuclear program beyond civilian necessity. Israel contends that the Islamic Republic never truly abandoned its nuclear weapons program.
This picture shows a replica of Iran’s Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant at an exhibition at the International Conference on Nuclear Science and Technology in Isfahan in on May 6, 2024 (Atta Kenare/AFP)
Iran is committed to Israel’s destruction. Over the past year, it has twice fired massive barrages of missiles at Israel, which has vowed to prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Israel has struck key Iranian military facilities in retaliation for both attacks, which came in the context of the multifront war opened by Iranian terror proxies on the Jewish state.
The Israeli strikes did not include major attacks on the country’s nuclear sites — though they did target one research facility reportedly connected to efforts to build a nuclear weapon — but crippled Iranian air defenses, which, together with newly-acquired air superiority over Syria, could pave the way for a future attack.
On Thursday, Netanyahu published a video directed at citizens of Iran, telling them the regime in Tehran is “terrified of you, the people of Iran. And one day, I know that, one day this will change. One day Iran will be free.” It was his third such video in recent months.
