Earlier in the day, the president boasted that US jets had unchallenged primacy in Iranian airspace
President Donald Trump is seriously considering getting the US directly involved in Israel’s conflict with Iran as he meets with his national security team on Tuesday, multiple media outlets have reported.
The president has lauded the Israeli bombing campaign against Iran’s nuclear facilities but has so far held off on joining offensive operations, opting instead to use US military assets to help West Jerusalem shoot down Iranian missiles and drones.
Ahead of a national security meeting in the White House Situation Room to discuss the escalating Middle East conflict, Trump was considering entering the US into the fray, Axios and CBS news wrote on Tuesday.
“Trump was seriously considering joining the war and launching a US strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, especially its underground uranium enrichment facility in Fordow,” Axios wrote, citing three anonymous officials. West Jerusalem believes the US will “enter the war in the coming days,” the outlet said, citing Israeli officials.
The decision will be discussed at Tuesday’s meeting, but there is no full agreement among Trump’s closes advisers, CBS News wrote, citing fire sources familiar with the matter.
Fordow, a heavily fortified uranium enrichment plant built deep inside a mountain, has been hit with Israeli airstrikes, but there is no indication that it’s underground section sustained significant damage, according to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi.
The Jewish state lacks the bunker-buster bombs needed to fully destroy the entrenched facility, but US forces deployed in the region do, Axios wrote on Sunday.
According to National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi, the Israeli campaign against Iran “will not end without damaging the Fordow nuclear facility.” While it is unclear “if the US will join,” Israel is in constant communication with Washington on the matter, he said in an interview on Tuesday.
A few hours prior to Tuesday’s security meeting, Trump delivered a chain of militant posts on Truth Social, claiming that the US now had unobstructed primacy in Iranian airspace, boasting that he could assassinate Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and demanding that Tehran capitulate.
