President Donald Trump told senior aides late Tuesday that he approved attack plans for Iran but has withheld a final order to see if Tehran would abandon its nuclear program, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing three people familiar with the deliberations.
Meanwhile, with the situation growing ever more precarious, Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said his country wouldn’t surrender.
He also warned that any U.S. military intervention would bring irreparable consequences.
The U.S. military has built up forces in the Middle East in the past few days.
Indeed, a third Navy destroyer entered the eastern Mediterranean Sea, while a second U.S. carrier strike group is heading toward the Arabian Sea, the Journal said.
The Pentagon has called the buildup a defensive action, though, as the Journal report noted, it also better positions the U.S. should Trump make a final determination to join Israeli attacks on Iran.
The news report also said the buildup could also be a tactical move, intended to pressure Iran to capitulate or make concessions.
Iran has come under international fire over development of nuclear materials, amid fears the rogue nation could use that material to develop nuclear weapons.
Trump and other world leaders have pressed Iran to sign onto an agreement to scrap its nuclear enrichment program, but it has yet to do so. Israel's Iran targets include sites involved in the Iranian nuclear efforts.
Iran going nuclear is widely viewed as a development with enormous potential to destabilize the Mideast, imperil Israel, and even threaten the greater world community.
Newsmax contributed to this report.
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