WASHINGTON – Outgoing US President Donald Trump reportedly asked top aides about the possibility of striking Iran's nuclear facilities, according to a report by the New York Times.
The report said that Trump made the request during a meeting at the Oval Office last week, which was also attended by several top officials in the Trump administration.
According to the report, attendees included Vice-President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley.
Trump reportedly asked “whether he had options to take action against Iran's main nuclear site in the coming weeks”, but was dissuaded by senior officials, who warned him that such an attack could escalate into a broader conflict in the last weeks of his presidency.
According to the Times, Trump reportedly asked the question after a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that Iran was continuing to stockpile uranium.
The newspaper added that the most likely target of such a strike would have been Natanz, where the IAEA said that Tehran's "uranium stockpile was now 12 times larger than permitted” under the 2015 nuclear accord between Tehran and world powers – which Trump abandoned three years after it was signed.
Other signatories to the accord have struggled to keep the deal afloat despite the Trump administration's efforts, and are hoping for a renewed diplomatic approach after the election victory of Democrat Joe Biden on November 3.
Efforts to walk back on the deal’s undoing could hit a snag, however, as Trump has refused to concede after his November 3rd loss, while pledging to step up punitive measures before he leaves office – which critics say could pose difficulties for a future Biden administration in removing them, when the Democratic president-elect eventually takes office. – AFP, November 17, 2020
