Despite a fragile ceasefire in place, United States President Donald Trump has reportedly weighed in on a return to all-out war with Iran over the past few days. Trump has held several conversations regarding what officials have referred to as “finishing the job” in Iran with defense secretary Pete Hegseth and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff Gen. Dan Caine on more strikes.
According to a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report, while Pentagon briefings on a president’s military options are not uncommon amid conflict or tensions, given that Trump is routinely holding formal and impromptu meetings on Iran, the latest discussions indicate that he has been looking for ways to break the deadlock with Iran, and has not ruled out return to strikes.
However, the same report said that Trump is not considering a return to war and believes that renewed strikes could hurt US’s chances of crushing Iran’s nuclear dreams.
In another development, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently warned that the military would “enter” Iran a “third time if necessary”. “We entered Iran twice to save ourselves from the destruction of atomic bombs that they had and there can be a third time if necessary,” Netanyahu said. He further added, “As long as I am Prime Minister, Iran will not have nuclear weapons.”
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The US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28 this year, with the strikes being termed by America as Operation Fury. US military forces forces struck more than 13,000 targets across Iran and killed late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran retaliated by striking US bases, infrastructure and other sites in Gulf countries including UAE and Saudi Arabia. The two sides agreed to an initial ceasefire on April 7 and signed a 14-point memorandum to end the conflict earlier this month.
Trump weighs options, but sticks to diplomacy for now
While Trump has mulled his military options, he has not made a final decision on the matter and has told aides that another round of full-scale strikes could derail talks and hurt US’ chances of dismantling Iran’s nuclear program, WSJ reported.
The US President has further informed his aides that he would be fine with negotiations going past August 18 – the 60 day timeline to reach a final agreement – a decision which would give the talks more time to work. Trump said that at present, he would stick to one-off strikes on Iran if and when it violated the memorandum of understanding. Both Iran and US traded strikes over the previous weekend alleging such violation on each other’s part.
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The US President had, earlier this month too, said America could “very easily” carry out strikes in Iran. “…We spend another two or three weeks bombing, they’ll have nothing left whatsoever, but you won’t have the strait opened for months. If we do the bombing, a lot of people are going to be killed,” Trump said, adding that a deal would be “tronger than doing the bombing.”
In the context of negotiations, while the US said envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were in Qatar’s Doha for talks with Iran, Tehran has rejected any such meeting. The talks were indirect as the US and Iranian delegation, which is also in Doha, spoke through mediators, according to WSJ.
