Trump asked for options to attack Iran last week but was dissuaded

A senior official confirmed the account of the meeting to the New York Times, which reported that advisers dissuaded Trump from proceeding with an attack on the risk of a wider conflict.

President Donald Trump, two months after leaving the White House, asked for options last week to attack Iran’s main nuclear site, but ultimately decided not to take such a drastic decision, a senior US official said Monday.

Trump filed the request at an Oval Office meeting on Thursday before his key National Security Advisers, including Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, new Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, and General Mark. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the senior official.

Trump, who refuses to concede a Democratic victory and is contesting the November 3 presidential election results in court, must hand over power to President-elect Joe Biden on January 20.

The senior official confirmed the meeting’s account to The New York Times newspaper, which reported that advisers dissuaded Trump from proceeding with an attack on the risk of a broader conflict.

“He asked for options. They provided him with the scenarios and in the end he decided not to move forward, “this senior official said.

The White House declined to comment.

Trump spent his four-year presidency engaging in an aggressive policy against Iran, withdrawing from the Iranian nuclear deal brokered by his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama in 2018, and imposing economic sanctions against a wide variety of Iranian targets.

Trump’s request came the day after a UN watchdog report showed that Iran had finished transferring the first round of advanced centrifuges from an above-ground facility at its main uranium enrichment site to a facility. underground. , in further violation of the 2015 nuclear deal with major world powers.

In January, Trump ordered a US drone strike that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani at Baghdad Airport, but avoided wider military conflicts and tried to withdraw US troops from major hotspots around the world, fulfilling the promise. to end. with what he calls “endless wars”.

An attack on Iran’s main nuclear enclave in Natanz could spark a regional conflict and pose a serious challenge to Biden’s foreign policy.

Biden’s transition team, which did not have access to national security intelligence due to the Trump administration’s refusal to initiate the handover, declined to comment.