Trump says he is ‘considering’ military strike on Iran

Latest comments come a day after he suggested a 10- to 15-day timeframe for Iran to agree to a new nuclear deal

President Donald Trump on Friday said he’s “considering” ordering airstrikes on Iran as a way to pressure the Iranian government into reaching a new agreement to curb the nuclear program the president claimed to have “obliterated” with a series of airstrikes last year.

Asked whether he was considering limited strikes from U.S. warplanes as a way to apply more pressure on Tehran amid intermittent negotiations during a breakfast meeting with U.S. governors, Trump replied: “I guess I can say I am considering that.”

The president’s latest comments come just one day after he warned that Tehran must reach an agreement with the United States on curbing its nuclear program or risk “bad things” as he addressed a meeting of his fledgling Board of Peace, at which he touted his efforts in ending Israel’s war in Gaza.

Scores of American warplanes — including F-35, F-22 and F-16 fighter jets plus associated tanker and command-and-control aircraft — have assembled at bases in countries within reach of Iran’s borders, and a a pair of U.S. Navy aircraft carrier groups led by U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln and U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford to the region (plus each carrier’s embarked air wings that can number as high as 180 planes between the two ships) are on station in the area as well.

During prepared remarks Thursday, he laid out what appeared to be a new 10-day deadline for Tehran to avoid military action and said talks between American and Iranian officials have been “good.”

Trump says he’s ‘considering’ limited airstrikes on Iran as a negotiating tactic (Getty Images)

“Good talks are being had. It’s proven to be, over the years, not easy to make a meaningful deal with Iran. We have to make a meaningful deal, otherwise bad things happen,” Trump said, adding that Iran “cannot have a nuclear weapon” and stressing that military action could come “over the next, probably 10 days” in the absence of an agreement.

Iran, Trump continued, “cannot continue to threaten the stability of the entire region, and they must make a deal.”

“Or if that doesn’t happen, I maybe can understand if it doesn’t happen ... but bad things will happen if it doesn’t,” he said.

His continued threats against the Iranian government are taking place against the backdrop of start-and-stop talks between Iranian representatives and U.S. negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law.

Face-to-face negotiations in Geneva last week ended without any sort of breakthrough, and Trump has ordered a massive military buildup in the Middle East region with the aim of adding more pressure ahead of further talks.

The U.S. last carried out strikes on Iran last summer, when B-2 bombers flying from an air base in Missouri dropped bunker-busting weapons onto a trio of Iranian nuclear facilities.

Trump has claimed that the strikes “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program, but he has nonetheless continued to claim that Tehran poses a nuclear threat and has demanded that the Iranian government abandon the nuclear program he claims to have destroyed.

According to reports, the assembled forces could be ready to strike Iran as early as Saturday.