Washington: US President Donald Trump on Saturday signalled that a decision could be coming on whether to resume military operations against Iran.
“We have a decision that I'll make about Iran,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House for a campaign swing to support Republican midterm candidates in Ohio. “Iran's been decimated. So the only question is, it'll either be the easy way or the hard way. We'll have it the easy or the hard way.”
Trump added that Iran is “virtually giving up” any plans to acquire a nuclear weapon.
On Friday, Axios reported that Trump's top national security aides had met secretly at Camp David to discuss US options on Iran and the Saudi-Houthi conflict in Yemen.
Iran is preparing a broader and more forceful response if the United States resumes large-scale military attacks, sources told Reuters, while continuing a diplomatic push that Iranian officials privately see as unlikely to succeed.
The planning reflects a conviction within Iran's leadership that any renewed US campaign must be met with a stronger response than before, even as Tehran seeks to avert escalation through talks.
Senior commanders are reviewing plans to expand potential targets beyond US-linked assets to countries that support US military operations and possibly to locations outside West Asia, according to three senior Iranian officials and an insider familiar with the discussions.
The deliberations follow seven months of conflict that began with US-Israeli attacks on February 28. Although an April 8 ceasefire ended the 40-day war, hostilities have continued sporadically since then.