US President Donald Trump is deciding whether to restart the bombing of Iran, and his own officials rush towards securing a peace deal with the regime as nuclear negotiations stall and a potential deal hangs in the balance.
Trump met his national security team at the White House on Wednesday and again on Thursday to weigh resuming military operations against Iran, according to multiple reports.
It was the president’s first session on the war with senior advisers since Democrats seized both chambers of Congress on Tuesday.
Officials told the president that this Monday brings a new moon over the Middle East, leaving next to no moonlight and the kind of cover commanders want for air operations, sources told Fox News.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office hours earlier that Washington would ‘make a decision’ on resuming the war, and asked whether to ‘go further’ to ensure Iran’s nuclear program is finished for good.
He said he would rather not destroy the rest of the country if he can avoid it, ‘but maybe I will have to. You’ll know soon enough,’ he added.
Tehran, meanwhile, has offered the White House a new proposal on its nuclear program through Qatari mediators, leaving Trump to choose between a deal and flattening what is left.
Moreover, Iran is handing out iodine tablets to families living within two miles of its nuclear sites and coaching them on how to survive a blast, The Times reports.
Tehran fears the next American strike will hit Pickaxe Mountain, the nuclear complex buried as deep as 100 meters under granite near Natanz.
