The US military is preparing for possible strikes on Iran this weekend, multiple news outlets reported Wednesday, citing unnamed sources.
However, reports say Donald Trump is yet to make a final decision on whether to launch an attack. Trump has repeatedly demanded that Iran halt its nuclear program and threatened to use force if a deal is not reached.
According to the New York Times, CBS News and CNN, the US military has mobilized enough air and naval resources in the Middle East to launch an offensive in the coming days.
Reuters, citing an unnamed senior US official, offered a slightly different timeline, reporting that US national security advisers were told at a meeting in the White House Situation Room on Wednesday that all US military forces deployed to the region should be there by mid-March.
CBS also noted that the strike timeline is likely to extend beyond this weekend.
The official told Reuters that Iran is likely to present a written proposal on how to resolve its standoff with the United States in the wake of talks with the United States in Geneva on Tuesday.
During Wednesday’s press conference, White House Press Secretary Carolyn Leavitt did not answer a question about the exact deadline Trump would give Iran to reach a deal before engaging in military action.
“Iran is very smart to have a deal with President Trump,” she said, adding that the Trump administration has “completely dismantled Iran’s nuclear facilities,” but that “diplomacy” is always the president’s “first choice.”
She noted that despite “some progress” following Tuesday’s talks in Geneva, “we are still very far apart on some issues.”
“He’s been spending a lot of time thinking about this,” a source told CNN about Trump.
According to Axios reporter Barak Ravid, Trump met on Wednesday with two advisers who are leading indirect talks with Iran: Steve Wittkoff, a real estate developer, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law.
On Israeli television, Ravid reported that talks in Geneva with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghi were a “nothing burger” and that the Pentagon was preparing for a joint Israeli-US strike that would last several weeks. According to Ravid’s sources, Iran only has until the end of February to offer concessions on its nuclear program.
The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier group and its flotilla of warships are already in the region, CBS News said, and a second carrier group, the USS Gerald Ford, is on its way to the Middle East.
As of Wednesday, the Ford was off the coast of West Africa, according to marine vessel tracking data and open-source researchers.
On Tuesday, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, posted an AI-generated image of the Ford in a sea grave on social media, along with the caption “More dangerous than that warship is the weapon that can send that warship to the bottom of the ocean.”
Dozens of refueling tankers and more than 50 additional fighter jets are also in the area, the New York Times reported. Meanwhile, CBS said the Pentagon is moving some personnel out of the Middle East to avoid a counterattack if the US goes ahead with a strike, citing multiple officials.
The New York Times reported, citing two defense officials, that Israel is also preparing for a possible joint strike with the United States.
In an interview with Saudi Arabia’s Al-Arabiya television that aired on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said any new US strike on Iran would have “no good consequences.”
“Nobody wants to escalate the tension. Everyone understands that this is playing with fire,” Lavrov said, calling on the United States not to attack Iran and for the country to pursue its peaceful nuclear program.
In June, the US struck key nuclear enrichment sites in Iran and Israeli warplanes hit “dozens” of targets across the country, including a long-range missile site in Yazd.
