Almost a week after Israel launched an unprovoked military offensive against Iran, theTrump administration is on the verge of sending U.S. aircraft to join the fight directly. Speaking on Wednesday morning to reporters at the White House, in response to a question about whether the U.S. was preparing its own strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities in support of Israel, President Trump replied, “I may do it, I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do.”
On Wednesday afternoon, Trump repeated to reporters in the Oval Office that he hadn’t made a decision on striking Iran—repeating the claim, contradicted by U.S. intelligence assessments, that Iran is weeks away from a nuclear weapon.
The Israeli government has demanded U.S. assistance in destroying Iran’s fortified nuclear facility at Fordow. On Friday, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter told Fox News that “the entire operation… really has to be completed with the elimination of Fordow.” Israeli officials have argued that only the U.S. military has munitions capable of targeting effectively, particularly the 30,000 lb. Massive Ordinance Penetrator (MOP) bomb. The Iranians also maintain another major nuclear facility at Natanz which has already been hit by Israeli strikes, but which is less fortified than Fordow. The MOP bunker buster bombs are even larger than MOABs—which Trump bragged about using in Afghanistan in 2017 to target a tunnel complex allegedly used by ISIS. ….more