Minutes after acknowledging that President Donald Trump campaigned on a term without wars, national security adviser Mike Waltz said all options are on the table for Israel to take out "nuclear buildup."
"Should Israel destroy Iran's nuclear buildup?" Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" host Maria Batiromo asked Waltz.
"Well, Maria," Waltz replied, "all options are on the table there. ... If Iran stepped forward tomorrow and gave the entire thing up, which they absolutely should, we would certainly entertain that. But at the same time, they cannot have a nuke, and all options are on the table to make sure that doesn't happen."
During his interview, Waltz did not elaborate on those options.
On Feb. 4, Trump reinstated the "maximum pressure" campaign on Iran from his first term. The president signed a memo that called for driving the country's "oil exports to zero" and said that Iran's path to a nuclear weapon "should be denied."
The memo was signed the day the White House received its first foreign head of state — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"If this goal can be achieved with a maximum pressure campaign, so be it, but the important thing is to focus on the goal," Netanyahu said. "If we could solve this problem without warfare, without all of the things you've been witnessing over the last number of years, I think it would be a tremendous thing."
The next day, on Feb. 5, Trump posted to Truth Social that he would like to see a new nuclear peace deal put in place, one that would allow Iran to "grow and prosper."
"I want Iran to be a great and successful Country, but one that cannot have a Nuclear Weapon. Reports that the United States, working in conjunction with Israel, is going to [']blow Iran into smithereens,' ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED. I would much prefer a Verified Nuclear Peace Agreement, which will let Iran peacefully grow and prosper," Trump wrote. "We should start working on it immediately, and have a big Middle East Celebration when it is signed and completed. God Bless the Middle East!"