Media reports from Friday say that President Donald Trump is considering limited strikes on Iran to force it to back down from its inflexible stance regarding its their nuclear enrichment and ballistic missile programs. Trump is also reportedly reviewing an option to take out Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei; his son and potential successor, Mojtaba Khamenei; and top Islamic clerics.
Regime change is reportedly on the table, and the military campaign may begin soon, within the next few days, according to the reports.
Both Israeli and American officials believe a strike is more likely than a deal because Iran has signaled that it will not back down from its hardline position on nuclear enrichment and ballistic missile expansion, the gap between the two countries on what constitutes acceptable concessions is unbridgeable and the United States has perhaps indicated its intentions by amassing the largest number of military assets in the region since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
What’s more, many officials in the Trump administration don’t trust Iran to honestly stick to a deal.
Speaking to reporters at a news conference Friday, Trump asserted that Iran had killed 32,000 people over a short period of time, alluding to the brutal January crackdown on protesters when the regime killed thousands — possibly tens of thousands — of protesters, with some reports putting the death toll at upwards of 36,000.
“It is a very, very sad situation,” the president said. “They were going to hang … some by crane. They lift them up with a tall crane, and they play them around the square. They were going to hang 837 people … I feel very badly for the people of Iran. They’ve lived in hell.”
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, speaking to Fox News on Friday, said the Iranian government would do well to take Trump at his word, recalling the strikes in June.
If Iranian government officials “don’t believe President Trump will do what he says in a military action, then they’re not real smart,” he said. “And they certainly have a short memory. They don’t remember what happened to them last summer.”
He said that the only deal is one in which Iran “gets rid of its nuclear enrichment, they don’t have any more aspirations for nuclear weapons, they quit killing their citizens and they start to lower the inventory of ballistic missiles, and especially the range.”
“If they don’t do that, Trump has said, there is no deal,” he said.
A U.S. official, speaking to Axios on Friday, said that Trump is still willing to consider a deal in which Iran meaningfully gives up enrichment.
“President Trump will be ready to accept a deal that would be substantive and that he can sell politically at home,” the official said. “If the Iranians want to prevent an attack, they should give us an offer we can’t refuse. The Iranians keep missing the window. If they play games, there won’t be a lot of patience.”
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) weighed in, saying that the ayatollah faces the same choice former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro faced: Leave, or get taken out, one way or another.
But on Saturday, Iran continued to strike a defiant tone.
“World powers are lining up to force us to bow our heads … but we will not bow our heads despite all the problems that they are creating for us,” said Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said that a new proposal for a nuclear deal will be forthcoming in the next couple of days.
He said in an interview, “What we are now talking about is how to make sure that Iran’s nuclear program, including enrichment, is peaceful and would remain peaceful forever.”