The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that Israel will likely attempt to bomb Iran in the coming months, a move that would risk a major war in the region involving the US.
The report, which cited US intelligence, said the idea would be to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities even though there’s no evidence Tehran has decided to build a nuclear weapon. President Trump even recently acknowledged that Iranian leadership doesn’t want a nuclear bomb.
The Post said that US intelligence produced a report during the final days of the Biden administration that warned about potential Israeli strikes, and another one was produced in the first days of the Trump administration.
The intelligence reports laid out two potential strike options for Israel that both involved US support in the form of aerial refueling, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. The Wall Street Journal published a similar report that said Israel is expected to push President Trump to provide support for the attack.
President Trump recently dismissed rumors that the US and Israel might bomb Iran together, saying they were “greatly exaggerated.” But both he and some of his officials have suggested a military option is on the table if the US doesn’t reach a deal with Iran, and Trump’s re-imposition of his so-called “maximum pressure” campaign on Tehran appears to have made diplomacy less likely.
White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes told the Post that Trump has “made it clear: He will not permit Iran to get a nuclear weapon.”
“While he prefers negotiating a resolution to America’s long-standing issues with the Iranian regime peacefully, he will not wait indefinitely if Iran isn’t willing to deal, and soon,” Hughes said.
Trump said last week that he would prefer to make a deal with Iran rather than bombing the country. “I would like a deal done with Iran on non-nuclear. I would prefer that to bombing the hell out of it. They don’t want to die. Nobody wants to die,” he said. “If we made the deal, Israel wouldn’t bomb them.”
