Donald Trump considered military strike on Iran's main nuclear site, but backed off after advisers stopped him
President Donald Trump, who has refused to concede defeat against Joe Biden in the presidential election held earlier this month, considered launching a military strike against Iran’s main nuclear facility last week before his senior advisers stopped him, according to two new reports.
On Monday, November 16, the New York Times reported that the incumbent asked top national security aides, including Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley and Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller about the potential strike against the Middle Eastern nation. The report, which cited four current and former American officials, confirmed the meeting about the potential strike.
Trump has always been critical of the Iranian regime about its nuclear ambitions and in 2018, pulled the US out of the multilateral deal that was signed by the previous Barack Obama administration with Tehran in 2015 to keep its nuclear program under check.
Last week’s meeting took place a day after international observers told members of the United Nations that Iran had increased its stockpile of nuclear material significantly. However, Trump’s aides inlcuding Pompeo and Milley dissuaded him from launching the strike cautioning him that such an extreme move could trigger a wider conflict with Tehran, the NYT cited its sources to say. The strike, if happened, would likely have targeted Iran’s main nuclear enrichment center in Natanz. It is also called the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant, which is located about 200 miles south of the Iranian capital.
Reuters cited a separate source that confirmed the meeting to say that Trump ultimately decided against moving forward after getting inputs from his aides. “He asked for options. They gave him the scenarios and he ultimately decided not to go forward,” it quoted a source as saying.
In June 2019, a face-off with Iran had Trump tweeting along similar lines saying the United States was “cocked & loaded” and prepared to fire on “3 different sights” [sic]. When he was told that 150 people would die in the attack, Trump said he stopped at the last minute it because the death toll wasn’t “proportionate to shooting down an unmanned drone.”
IAEA's reports on Iran's nuclear programs
Last Wednesday, November 11, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported secretly that Iran’s uranium stockpile is now 12 times more than the limit set under the 2015 accord. According to the UN agency, Tehran had a stockpile of more than 5,300 pounds of low-enriched uranium as of November 2, up from 4,641.6 pounds reported on August 25. Under the 2015 pact formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran is allowed to keep a stockpile of around 447 pounds. The IAEA also reported that Iran has been continuing to enrich uranium to a purity of up to four-and-half percent, more than the 3.67 percent allowed under the JCPOA. The agency also added that Iran has prevented inspectors from reaching another site where past evidence of nuclear activity was found.
Officials who spoke to the NYT said the president reacted to the IAEA’s findings by asking his aides about the options that were available before Washington to respond to Tehran’s nuclear expansion. Trump had said in January that Iran would never have a nuclear weapon soon after Tehran announced that it suspended its commitments under the JCPOA following the death of its top military leader Qassem Soleimani in a US drone strike outside the Baghdad airport on January 3.
President-elect Biden has said that he wants to revive the nuclear accord with Iran after taking over in January but if the outgoing president goes ahead with extreme measures, the incoming administration’s plans could be jeopardized beyond repair.