Washington – President Trump has been informed about both the risks and the benefits of bombing FordIran’s safest nuclear site, and his mentality is that disabled is necessary due to the risk of the weapon bee produced in a relatively short period of time, multiple sources told CBS News.
“He believes there are not many options,” said a source. “Finishing the job means destroying fordo.”
The president approved attack plans in Iran on Tuesday night, but has not made a final decision on Yes attack The country and formally join the Israel air campaign, said a senior intelligence official and an official of the Department of Defense to CBS News on Wednesday. Mr. Trump Hero decides to attack in the event that Tehran accepts to leave his nuclear program, the sources said.
The White House Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said the president will make a decision on whether he will order a strike within the next two weeks.
“According to the fact that there is a substantial possibility of negotiations that may or may not take place in the near future, I will make my decision or not go within the next two weeks,” Trump said in a statement read by Leavitt in the information on the presentation of the White House.
CBS News previously reported that Trump was Weighing a strike in FordoAn underground uranium enrichment center. Israel has not made any known blow In Fordo Since bombarding Iranian nuclear and military objectives at the end of last week.
Trump’s decision
Trump is willing to involve the US. If that is what is needed to knock out the site, the sources said. Until Thursday, he was still reviewing his options and has not made a firm decision in any way. Has discussed the logistics of Use of bunker-buster pumpsTwo of the sources said.
It was not clear immediately how much of the US military infrastructure. I needed for a strike or how long it would take the assets to the position.
An option that Mr. Trump has considered that Iran could disable fordo on his own, if their leaders choose it, two of the sources said.
David Lammy, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom, flew to Washington to meet Thursday with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House Witkoff, CBS News, with the active diplomacy in the ramp ramp ramp of bank ramp. London maintains and the embassy in Tehran, giving the visibility of the United Kingdom that the United States does not have in the Iranian capital.
“Now is the time to stop the scenes of the grave in the Middle East and avoid a regional escalation that would not be beneficial,” Lammy said in a statement after his meetings with Trump’s officials.
Trump is aware of the diplomatic effort that is being carried out, with Lammy, the foreign ministers of Germany, France and the high representative of the European Union who will meet with Friday with Foreign Minister Iraní Araghchi in Geneva.
The conversation there can help determine if Iran is still open to direct conversations with the United States, not only with European nations, which is something that Witkoff has also tried to start through its own personal reach, according to the United States official.
Trump has seen intelligence reports indicating the estimated speed to which Iran could produce bombs, two of the sources said.
John Ratcliffe, the director of the CIA, said in closed environments that Iran is considered very close to having nuclear weapons, according to multiple sources.
Ratcliffe has said that affirming that Iran is not close would be similar to saying that the football players who have fought against the line of a yard do not want to score a touchdown, an official said.
The Congress Committees that have been informed by the senior analysts of the CIA have been told that the opinion of the intelligence community is that the supreme leader has not given any arrangement and that Iran has not restarted the bomb.
The CIA declined to comment.
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the main Democrat in the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Wednesday that “so far, at least, the intelligence community has resisted its conclusion that Iran is not moving to the little ones a nuclear weapon.”
“They were enriching additional uranium, but they weren’t putting that yet yet, and that [decision] He stayed with the supreme leader, “he told the journalists.” If there has been a change in that intelligence, I need to know, and I want to make sure that if it is changed, it is based on the fact and not the political influence. ”
“Things change, especially with war”
Trump told journalists on Wednesday that I had not made a final decision About whether Iran hit.
“I like to make the final decision a second before it is due, because things change, as special with war,” he said.
“I can do it. I may not.
Iran, who for a long time has insisted that the program exists only for peaceful purposes – He said Wednesday “It does not negotiate under coercion,” and said that “he would respond to any threat with a counterprene.”
Iran has prepared missiles and strikes for strikes in the US bases in the Middle East if the United States joins the Israeli campaign, according to a senior intelligence official from the United States and an official of the Pentagon with a letter of letters on the matter.
Israel begged Iran on Friday morning. The Trump administration has said publicly that it is not participating in offensive attacks, he thought that CBS News previously reported that the United States has helped Israel intercept the retaliation missile strikes of Iran.
In recent days, Trump has not ruled out the idea of joining Israel’s campaign, saying that in social truth his “patience gets thin.”
The president said on Tuesday that the United States knows the whereabouts of the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamei. “It is an easy goal, but it is safe there, we are not going to get it (kill!), At least not for now,” Trump wrote in Truth Social. Sunday, CBS News reported Trump had opposed an Israeli plan to kill Khamei.
Next steps in possible negotiations
Two diplomatic sources indicated to CBS News that Turkey and Oman, as well as European countries, including Italy and Norway, had offered direct or indirect potential accommodation between the United States and Iran if Tehran should choose this path. At this point, there are no direct conversations from the United States.
On Thursday, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Rubio had told him that the United States is ready for direct negotiations with Iranian counterparts. A French dipae said that Rubio spoke on the phone with his French counterpart, French Minister of French Relations Jean-Noël Barot, and transmitted that the United States was ready for “direct contact with the Iranians at any time.” Barrot and Rubio are expected to speak again after Geneva consultations to coordinate.
In the midst of chaos within Iran after the Israeli strikes and the murder of the high officials of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, it is not clear what the Araghchi march orders will be when it arrives in Geneva, nor how functional is the Iranian Gonnment at the time.
The sources in the region indicated that connectivity and international calls to Iran are difficult to complete. The cyber attacks that have paralyzed the banking system themselves underline the internal interruption, and from Thorsday, multiple diplomats acknowledged that everything made everything more difficult to organize conversations in person with Araghchi in the first place. Iranian State News announced that Araghchi is expected to travel to Türkiye on June 20.
A diplomatic source indicated that the ongoing Israeli assault can also Make the supreme leader fearful Communicate the concerns given about avoiding signal intelligence interceptions that could be used to attack it.
Trump has been frustrated in recent weeks that, although Iran is presented to the negotiating table, their leaders have not shown the will to negotiate terms. An official American family with efforts told News CBS that Iran sat for two weeks. About the most recent Witkoff proposal Presented by the United States without directly decreasing or accepting its terms. Instead, Iranian leadership issued press statements, but negotiators did not devote themselves directly to details or discuss the terms of the offer. That lack of substantive commitment left the Trump administration in doubt about whether Iran was participating in good faith negotiations, or simply running out of the Provaris clock.
Netanyahu has publicly questioned if the leaders of those who were playing with Trump, and used that uncertainty to justify their unilateral decision to launch military attacks. Multiple American and foreign diplomats indicated that Trump did not bless the strikes, but he also did not explicitly told Netanyahu to advance. Diplomatic sources recognized CBS News that Iran’s leaders can also be wondering about the degree of coordination between the United States and Israel, and uncertain about whether the united diplomacy of the United States was a trick to justify military force.
An American official insisted on CBS News on Thursday night that Mr. Trump’s interest in diplomacy was a genuine ash was his aversion to bring the US military to a war of the Middle East, especially without a clear sensation of what will come after the collapse of the Iranian regime. American and European diplomats confirmed that Beind closed Door’s are conversations about who would lead Iran next, if nuclear and material can be insured, as well as environmental and health impacts for the allies in the surroundings
and Kathryn Watson contributed to this report.
