Update(1730ET): As President Trump convenes a White House situation room meeting this Tuesday early evening, and following Ayatollah Khamenei's earlier televised speech vowing 'we will not surrender' - The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Trump has made the decision:
President Trump told senior aides late Tuesday that he approved of attack plans for Iran, but was holding off to see if Tehran would abandon its nuclear program, people familiar with the deliberations said. Iran’s well-defended Fordow enrichment facility is a possible U.S. target. Israel has yet to attack the facility, which is buried under a mountain and is generally considered by military experts to be out of reach of all but the most powerful bombs.
Asked earlier if he had decided whether to strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities, Trump said, “I may do it, I may not do it.” And he repeated his insistence of Iran’s unconditional surrender: “The next week is going to be very big, maybe less than a week.”
Is this yet another last ditch effort to strong arm Tehran to the negotiating table, where Trump's hope is that it will declare zero enrichment? Has the US Commander-in-Chief painted himself into a corner, and now it's all zero sum? The Iranians remain under heavy Israeli bombing, and with leadership likely in deep bunkers, are unlikely to negotiate the end of their own 'regime'. Trump may have finally pulled the trigger here. Where's Congress?
Update(1302ET): Things are quickly going from bad to worse for Iran, amid ongoing Israeli airstrikes, and given Iran's air defenses in its western portion of the country appear completely destroyed and disabled.
Iran is now in a 'near-total national internet blackout' - according to monitoring from a UK-based watchdog:
Vital civic infrastructure in Tehran, including some sewage system and water networks, have also been hit.
* * *
President Donald Trump on Wednesday fielded reporters' questions on the Iran crisis, but refused to answer whether the US military will directly enter the war, amid Israeli requests that the Pentagon assist in striking Iran's nuclear facilities.
"There's a big difference between now and a week ago," Trump told reporters outside the White House, and added curiously: "Nobody knows what I'm going to do."
He indicated that the Iranians had reached out but he feels "it's very late to be talking." But he also threw out the possibility: "We may meet. It's, I don't know, there's a big difference between now and a week ago," he said on the White House lawn.
Via CBS/Getty Images"I can tell you this, that Iran's got a lot of trouble and they want to negotiate. And I say, 'Why didn't you negotiate with me before all this death and destruction?'" And more:
"For 40 years they've been saying death to America, death to Israel, death to anybody else that they didn't like," he said. "They were bullies. They were schoolyard bullies. And now they're not bullies anymore. But we'll see what happens."I wouldn't say that we won anything yet. I would say that we sue hell made a lot of progress."
He further described Iran as "totally defenseless" at this moment of Israeli warplanes having full dominance of skies in Western Iran. According to a recent Bloomberg headline:
Iran’s Missile Attacks Wane, Allowing Israel to Start Reopening
Amid all of this, CNN is reporting that a third US aircraft carrier is being moved, though not all the way to Middle East waters. This could be as 'back-up' to the two carriers currently deploying to the CENTCOM region of responsibility:
USS FORD CARRIER STRIKE GROUP EXPECTED TO DEPLOY TO EUROPE: CNN
The USS Ford Carrier Strike Group is expected to be deployed to Europe next week, near the Middle East, putting a third aircraft carrier in close proximity to the conflict between Israel and Iran, a US official and two other people familiar with the matter said.The Ford’s scheduled deployment to the European Command theater has been in the books since late last year. But it will likely move into the eastern Mediterranean Sea, near Israel, given the ongoing conflict with Iran. At the same time, another aircraft carrier is en route to the Middle East where it will either join or replace the USS Carl Vinson, CNN has reported.
Meanwhile the hawks are circling, as GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham said he spoke with President Donald Trump last night about Iran, and that he argued there is one facility that "it would be hard to Israel to get without our help.""We’ll see what the president does. But I never felt better about the end of the Iran nuclear program is very close, and the world will be better off for it," Graham said.
"Either you want them to have a nuclear weapon, or you don’t, and if you don’t, if diplomacy fails, you use force," he continued, according to CNN. "If you don’t understand that Iran with a nuclear weapon is the biggest danger in the world, you’re missing a lot. If you don’t understand this is a religious Nazi regime, you’re not listening to what they say."This of course course contradicts everything Trump presented on the campaign trail, and even last month while in the Gulf - that his administration would seek pace, stability, and a non-interventionist stance which breaks from the Mideast military adventurism of the past.
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