Donald Trump asked senior White House advisers last Thursday if he could strike Iran's main nuclear site in the coming weeks, reports the New York Times on Monday evening. That site is Natanz, and it houses Iran's nuclear stockpile.
The Oval Office meeting in which Trump asked if he could bomb Iran's main nuke site happened one day after international inspectors "reported a significant increase in the country's stockpile of nuclear material, four current and former U.S. officials said on Monday." Excerpt from the NYT:
A range of senior advisers dissuaded the president from moving ahead with a military strike. The advisers — including Vice President Mike Pence; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; Christopher C. Miller, the acting defense secretary; and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — warned that a strike against Iran's facilities could easily escalate into a broader conflict in the last weeks of Mr. Trump's presidency.
Any strike — whether by missile or cyber — would almost certainly be focused on Natanz, where the International Atomic Energy Agency reported on Wednesday that Iran's uranium stockpile was now 12 times larger than permitted under the nuclear accord that Mr. Trump abandoned in 2018. The agency also noted that Iran had not allowed it access to another suspected site where there was evidence of past nuclear activity.
Trump is reportedly still looking at ways to strike Iran's assets and allies, including militias in Iraq, the NYT reports. Joe Biden can't take that oath soon enough.
