Israel is reportedly considering striking Iran in the coming days — without US support — after high-stakes nuclear negotiations between Washington and Tehran appeared to have stalled.
The Jewish state is weighing whether to take military action even as the Trump administration awaits a formal response from Iran to its proposed framework for a nuclear deal, NBC reported Thursday, citing multiple sources.
US officials are said to be on high alert over the possibility – and are particularly concerned about Iran retaliating against American personnel or assets in nearby Iraq, the sources said.
Iranian demonstrators burn a representation of the Israeli flag. APIran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Hossein Salami has already warned that any retaliation to any Israeli aggression would be “more forceful and destructive” than in past offensives.
The country’s President Masoud Pezeshkian vowed, too, that Iran would rebuild its nuclear facilities if they are eliminated by the Israelis.
“It is not the case that if they destroy our facilities with bombs, everything will be lost,” Pezeshkian told state media.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a meeting. AFP via Getty Images“These capabilities exist in our minds, and therefore, whatever they do, we will rebuild again.”
The State Department announced Wednesday it was reducing the number of people deemed nonessential to operations in the Middle East due to the potential for regional unrest.
All nonessential personnel from the US Embassy in Baghdad were ordered to depart, according to officials. The department also authorized the departure of nonessential personnel and family members from Bahrain and Kuwait.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “has authorized the voluntary departure of military dependents from locations” across the region, US Central Command said in a statement, adding that it was “monitoring the developing tension in the Middle East.”
Tensions have been heightened as the Iran-US nuclear talks reached an impasse.
The US wants to force an end to Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some of the economic sanctions that the US has imposed on Tehran.
President Trump, who has previously said Israel or the US could carry out airstrikes targeting Iranian nuclear facilities if negotiations failed, has said he is determined not to allow Tehran get its hands on an atomic weapon.
Still, Trump signaled earlier this week he was losing hope that Iran would agree to end all uranium enrichment.
“I don’t know,” he told The Post’s Miranda Devine on her “Pod Force One” podcast released Wednesday when asked if he thought he could get Iran to agree to shut down its nuclear program.
Israel reportedly is considering the strikes against Iran without support from the US. Shutterstock“I don’t know. I did think so, and I’m getting more and more — less confident about it.
“They seem to be delaying, and I think that’s a shame, but I’m less confident now than I would have been a couple of months ago. Something happened to them, but I am much less confident of a deal being made.”
With Post wires
