President Donald Trump has explicitly communicated to his senior aides that, although he has approved plans for an attack against Iran, he has not yet authorized the operation, aiming to encourage Iran to engage in negotiations.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Trump reviewed plans targeting Iran’s Fordow nuclear enrichment facility. The president is holding off on final approval as he waits to see if Iran will abandon its nuclear program. The Journal reported that Trump hopes having the plan ready will push Iran toward serious negotiations.
When asked about the potential strike, Trump simply said: “I may do it, I may not do it.”
But the president also sent a stark warning to Iran’s leaders—a warning they would be smart to take seriously.
During an exchange with reporters on Wednesday, one asked: “Can you answer whether you are moving closer to striking Iranian nuclear facilities?”
“I can’t say that. You don’t think I will answer that?” Trump replied, then mocked the question with a touch of sarcasm.
“You don’t know that I’m going to even do it. I may do it—may not. Nobody knows what I am going to do. I can tell you this: Iran has a lot of trouble. They want to negotiate. And I said, ‘Why didn’t you negotiate with me before all this death and destruction? Why didn’t you negotiate with me two weeks ago? You could have done fine. You would have had a country.’ It’s very sad to watch this. I’ve never seen anything like it. Everyone thought it would be the reverse. I didn’t think so. I was telling them you have to do something. You have to negotiate. At the last minute, they said, ‘We aren’t going to do that,’” the president said.
“And they got hit. Remember 60 days? 61 will become a very famous number. One hell of a first hit. One hell of a hit. Not sustainable, to be honest—it ended on the first night,” he added, warning that “it’s not too late” for Iran to negotiate, but the window is closing fast.
When asked if Iran had reached out to him, Trump answered, “Yes. I said it’s very late, you know? I said it’s very late to be talking. I don’t know—there is a big difference between now and a week ago. Big difference.”
He even revealed that Iranian officials suggested an in-person meeting.
“It’s about any—anybody. They even suggested they come to the White House. A big difference. But they suggested it. I can’t go now because of what’s going on. I had to come back early from the G-7; that was terrific in Canada—good people,” Trump said.
And then the president spelled out exactly what he wants from Iran—just two words:
“Two very simple words: unconditional surrender. That means ‘I’ve had it. Okay, I give up. No more.’ Then we go—‘all the nuclear stuff is over the place.’ They had bad intentions for forty years: ‘Death to America, death to Israel,’ and anybody else they didn’t like. They were bullies—schoolyard bullies. Now they aren’t bullies anymore, but we’ll see what happens. Nothing is finished until it is finished. War is very complex—many bad things can happen; many turns are made. I wouldn’t say we’ve won anything yet. We sure as hell made a lot of progress. We’ll see—the next week will be big, maybe less. But is there anybody here who thinks it’s okay for a hostile, zealous country to have a nuclear weapon that could destroy twenty-five miles—or more—its dust blowing to other nations? We’ve been threatened by Iran for many years. Fifteen years ago, I was saying we cannot let Iran get a nuclear weapon. I’ve been saying it for a long time,” the president said.