Senior US officials are preparing for the possibility of a strike on Iran in the coming days, according to people familiar with the matter, a sign that Washington is assembling the infrastructure to directly enter a conflict with Tehran.
Bloomberg reports that the situation is still evolving and could change, said the people, who requested anonymity to discuss private talks. Some of the people pointed to potential plans for a weekend strike. Top leaders at a handful of federal agencies have also begun getting ready for an attack, one person said.
President Donald Trump has for days publicly mused about calling for such a strike on Iran, which has been engaged in a war with Israel for nearly a week.
Trump told reporters at the White House Wednesday he has “ideas as to what to do” and that he prefers to make the “final decision one second before it’s due” because the situation in the Middle East is fluid.
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A few hours earlier Trump said, “I may do it. I may not do it,” when asked if he was moving closer to attacking Iran.
A White House official said that all options remain on the table.
Asian stocks extended declines following the news of the preparations, with a gauge of regional equities sliding as much as 0.7%.
Rhetorical shift
The president’s openness to war is a reversal from his public remarks a week ago when Trump was urging diplomatic talks to reach a nuclear disarmament deal with Iran.
Waiting a few days to strike gives Iranian leaders additional runway to demonstrate to Trump that they are willing to give up some uranium enrichment capabilities in order to deter a US attack.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a social media post earlier Wednesday that his country remained “committed to diplomacy” and has never sought and would never seek nuclear weapons.
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Foreign ministers from the UK, France, and Germany are planning to hold nuclear talks with their Iranian counterpart on Friday in Geneva, according to a person familiar with the matter.
