President-elect Donald Trump is considering options to stop Iran from building a nuclear weapon, including pre-emptive air strikes that would end years of containment through sanctions against Iran, according to a new report.
Members of the Trump transition team are considering more options for military strikes in response to recent upheavals in the Middle East, including the fall of Syria's Bashar al-Assad regime and Israel's destruction of Tehran's terror proxies Hezbollah and Hamas. We are considering it. The Wall Street Journal reported.
Uzi Rabi, director of Tel Aviv University's Moshe Dayan Center for Middle East Studies, said Trump has a “huge opportunity” to end the conflict in the Middle East and thwart Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions.
“He's a businessman and he'll say to the Iranians, 'You have a chance to stay in power, okay.' We'll lift the sanctions, but you'll stop everything with the military and nuclear infrastructure. It will also stop the establishment and support of terrorist proxies in the Middle East,” Rabi told the Post.
Rabi, 78, said that if Tehran refuses, “there will be a very severe military attack on your head, whether it's an Israeli attack with American support or an American attack.” He said there is a high possibility that he will issue an ultimatum along with a warning. Any combination of these options is fine. ”
Iran's nuclear capabilities have been on President Trump's mind lately, and the president-elect discussed his concerns in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, sources told the Journal.
With discussions still in their early stages, the soon-to-be 47th president appears to favor tactics that would avoid starting another war in the Middle East that would be harsh but could involve the United States.
While Trump's transition team is working on a strategy centered on tough economic sanctions, a repeat of his first term, aides are fleshing out possible military measures against Iran.
The measures include increasing military pressure in the region by sending more US troops, fighter jets and ships to the region.
The United States also could sell additional advanced weapons to Israel, including bunker-busting bombs, to put pressure on Iran against an enemy that has attacked its nuclear facilities in the past.
However, President Trump recently said in an interview with Time magazine that the United States may go to war with Iran after investigators discovered that Iran once plotted to assassinate President Trump. As mentioned earlier, the option of a direct attack by the United States is not out of the question.
“Anything can happen,” he told the magazine, which named him 2024's Person of the Year. “It's a very unstable situation.”
Israeli officials have not commented on the possibility of joining the United States in a pre-emptive strike against Iran, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu previously said he and Trump “see eye-to-eye on the Iranian threat in all its dimensions and the danger it poses.” ” he said.
The Iranian government has long denied that it is working on building nuclear weapons, despite reports in recent years that it is working to enrich its uranium supply to weapons-grade levels.
