Senior members of the Trump administration said Friday that President Donald Trump has not yet made a final decision on whether to carry out a military strike against Iran, even as the White House reviews a range of possible responses tied to Tehran’s nuclear and missile capabilities.
According to three U.S. officials who spoke to The New York Times, the President is evaluating several options, including direct military action aimed at crippling Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and limiting its capacity to fire ballistic missiles.
The officials said one of the possibilities under discussion involves deploying American special operations forces to target specific Iranian military assets.
They emphasized, however, that the Defense Department would need additional preparation before any of these plans could be executed.
The deliberations come days after Trump met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Wednesday, where Iran was a primary topic of discussion.
After the meeting, Trump wrote: “There was nothing definitive reached other than I insisted that negotiations with Iran continue to see whether or not a Deal can be consummated. If it can, I let the Prime Minister know that will be a preference. If it cannot, we will just have to see what the outcome will be.”
On Friday, Trump directed that the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, along with its accompanying strike group currently stationed in the Caribbean, be repositioned to the Middle East.
When questioned about the deployment, Trump told reporters the carrier was sent “in case we don’t make a deal, we’ll need it. If we don’t have a deal, we’ll need it. We have one out there that just arrived. If we need it, we have it ready. A big, a very big force,” said Trump.
Asked how confident he is that talks with Tehran will succeed, the President responded, “I think they’ll be successful, and if they’re not, it’s going to be a bad day for Iran, very bad.”
