As President Donald Trump huddled together with his high advisers within the White Home Scenario Room on Tuesday, U.S. officers signaled that the subsequent 24 to 48 hours can be important in figuring out whether or not a diplomatic answer with Iran is feasible — or if the president would possibly resort to army motion as an alternative.
Trump considerably ramped up his rhetoric in opposition to the Iranian regime forward of the assembly, asserting that the U.S. knew precisely the place Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was hiding.
“He’s a straightforward goal, however is secure there — We aren’t going to take him out (kill!), a minimum of not for now. However we do not need missiles shot at civilians, or American troopers. Our persistence is carrying skinny,” Trump wrote on social media.
“We now have full and whole management of the skies over Iran,” he claimed in one other put up.
President Donald Trump departs after a household picture throughout the Group of Seven Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada, June 16, 2025.
Suzanne Plunkett/Pool/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
A final probability for diplomacy?
Regardless of the obvious saber rattling, U.S. negotiators on Tuesday continued to evaluate that Iran is in a weak place and may very well be compelled to return again to the negotiating desk and to finally settle for a deal that might require it abandon all nuclear enrichment, in response to a number of officers concerned within the diplomatic course of.
As Iran and Israel commerce blows, the Iranian regime has signaled a willingness to renew discussions with the U.S., the officers stated, including that the Trump administration has been in search of extra concrete commitments earlier than backing off the warfare path.
If Iran returns to the negotiations and agrees to drop its uranium enrichment, U.S. officers consider a high-level assembly led by Particular Envoy Steve Witkoff and doubtlessly Vice President JD Vance would occur as quickly as this week.
However that state of affairs possible requires Iran to maneuver rapidly. The president has already acknowledged his persistence with the state of affairs within the Center East is carrying skinny.
Sources acquainted with the president’s mindset stated he has grown pissed off by a destabilized Iran’s lack of ability to offer the administration with fast solutions and in addition seems extremely disinclined to permit for a state of affairs to unfold the place it seems as if Tehran has efficiently referred to as his army bluff.
Airmen have a look at a GBU-57, or the Huge Ordnance Penetrator bomb, at Whiteman Air Base in Missouri, Might 2, 2023.
U.S. Air Pressure by way of AP, FILE
A ‘defensive’ US posture — for now
The U.S. army is already sending property towards the area, together with sending further plane and a second plane provider and its strike group to the Center East — all strikes which are defensive in nature, officers say.
“We’re sturdy, we’re ready, we’re defensive and current,” Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth stated of the U.S. posture within the Center East throughout an interview with Fox Information on Monday.
However whereas the repositioning of property is meant to guard the 40,000 estimated American troops stationed within the area, it additionally leaves choices open for the Trump administration if it decides to straight help with Israel’s ongoing offensive operation in opposition to Iran.
“It is our position to maintain choices on the desk, however our posture remains to be defensive,” stated a U.S. official.
A B-2 Spirit returns to Whiteman Air Pressure Base, Missouri, from a deployment to Diego Garcia, British Indian Ocean Territory, Might 9, 2025.
Senior Airman Devan Halstead/509th Bomb Wing/US Air Pressure
A serious query is whether or not the U.S. will deploy its B-2 stealth bombers. The heavy strategic bombers are able to carrying the 30,000 pound Huge Ordnance Penetrator bunker-buster bombs, which could be capable of destroy Iran’s deep underground nuclear facility on the Fordo Gasoline Enrichment Plant.
Presently, the army’s fleet of 19 B-2 bombers is positioned at Whiteman Air Pressure Base in Missouri. Six of the plane had been beforehand deployed to the airbase on the island of Diego Garcia within the Indian Ocean — a lot nearer to Iran. Nevertheless, they had been changed by B-52 long-range bombers which aren’t able to carrying the bunker-buster bombs wanted to destroy the Fordo web site.
Already, roughly a dozen U.S. Navy vessels are in Bahrain’s territorial waters away from put up, in response to a Protection Division official, who stated that the ships would not have any official tasking. Amongst them are a littoral fight ship, 4 minesweepers, and 6 water patrol craft, the official stated.
The Navy additionally has two destroyers within the Purple Sea, an plane provider, and three different floor ships within the Arabian Sea. Two extra American destroyers are within the japanese Mediterranean Sea — every geared up with missile protection methods able to taking pictures down Iranian ballistic missiles.
A shifting US agenda
Indicators the Trump administration may very well be inching towards army motion may embrace canceling the president’s plans to journey to the Netherlands for a NATO summit subsequent week.
At a press briefing on Tuesday, State Division spokesperson Tammy Bruce stated the summit was nonetheless “on the books” — however stated the state of affairs may change relying on the dynamic with Iran.
“That is one thing that’s transferring — as issues are inclined to — very quickly. So, I’d say that something is feasible,” she stated.
Already, the president made an early exit from the G7 summit in Canada, opting to chop his time there brief on Monday so as to monitor the state of affairs within the Center East from the White Home.
