Trump Weighting Attack On Iran In Three Days As U.S. Amasses Largest Airpower Since Iraq Invasion

Illustrative image. (U.S. Central Command)

United States President Donald Trump has been told by his top national security advisers that the American military could attack Iran as soon as February 21, according to CBS News.

In a report published on February 19, the news channel said that Trump has not made his mind yet, and that the timeline for a decision is expected to extend beyond this weekend. Sources familiar with the discussions in Washington described the ongoing discussions in Washington as “fluid and ongoing”.

CBS News. further noted that the Pentagon is temporarily shifting some personnel out of the Middle East in the coming days as it readies for a potential Iranian counterattack if the US strikes.

Iran was discussed in the White House Situation Room on February 18, a U.S. official and a senior military official told the channel, which noted that while an attack will be possible in three days, military forces deployed to the region are expected to be in place by mid-March.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a White House briefing a day earlier that there are “many reasons and arguments that one could make for a strike against Iran” but diplomacy is always the president’s first option.

Iranian and American negotiators held indirect nuclear talks earlier this week in Geneva. Both sides said that some progress has been made, but Leavitt said, “We’re still very far apart on some issues.”

“I believe the Iranians are expected to come back to us with some more detail in the next couple of weeks, and so the president will continue to watch how this plays out,” she said.

Leavitt declined to discuss whether a potential attack would be coordinated with Israel, although a recent Axios report said that the war will likely start with a joint American-Israeli attack and go on for weeks.

The U.S. military buildup in the Middle East gained momentum in recent days. Flight tracking monitors revealed the deployment of 18 F-35A Lightning II stealth fighter jets, 12 F-22 Raptors stealth fighter jets, 48 F-16 Fighting Falcons fighter jets, six E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning And Control Systems (AWACS) aircraft, one one E-11A Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) aircraft, and even one U-2 Dragon Lady spy plane.

In addition, maritime data revealed that the USS Gerald R. Ford has already arrived near the Strait of Gibraltar, which means it could join the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East in just three days.

A report by The Wall Street Journal published on February 19 described the current U.S. military buildup in the Middle East as the biggest since the 2003 invasion that launched the Iraq War.

The report estimated that the military buildup allows for a much longer campaign than the U.S. strike on Iranian nuclear facilities during the Israel-Iran war last June. This again lines up with Axios’ latest report which talks about a weeks-long war on the Islamic Republic.

The 12-day June war, and previous limited confrontation show that it is impossible to calculate when exactly the U.S. and Israel would attack. That’s being said, the Trump administration is clearly approaching a decision.

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