The US military is ready to launch potentially major attacks on Iran “within 96 hours of receiving” an order from President Trump, CNN reported on Monday.
Sources told the outlet that the US now has sufficient forces in the region to carry out the potential attacks, and that the strikes would likely go beyond the US attacks in recent months that have targeted Iranian missile launchers and radar systems.
Leaders in the Pentagon and at US Central Command have drawn up a wide range of targets, including energy infrastructure, military sites, and nuclear facilities, though the report acknowledged that it would be more difficult for the US to destroy all of them since Iran is now more familiar with the US military’s tactics.
Trump has been threatening to restart major attacks on Iran, and some of CNN’s sources said it was a question of when, not if, he will give the order to go ahead with the strikes. The timeline is unclear, though he’s more likely to wait until after the November 3 US midterm elections.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appeared eager to restart attacks on Iran ahead of Tuesday’s Israeli elections, but it looks like he will have to wait. Even if Netanyahu’s Likud party doesn’t come out on top in the elections, Netanyahu would likely still be in power in the days following the US midterm elections as the winning party works to form a government.
The CNN report said that Netanyahu wanted to launch an attack before the elections but that the Trump administration wanted to wait until it was ready to carry out joint US-Israeli strikes. “Netanyahu really wanted and tried to convince Trump for a joint attack in Iran before the elections, and Trump did not give a green light,” an Israeli security source told the outlet.
The report said that IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir had told Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine that an attack on Iran could hurt the Israeli elections. According to Israeli media reports, Netanyahu and Zamir have been at odds over an order Netanyahu gave related to Iran that the Israeli army chief didn’t want to carry out due to the elections.
