Members of the White House Press Corps walk along the White House after a storm in Washington, DC, US, June 18, 2025. Reuters/Nathan Howard | Photocredit: Nathan Howard
Senior American officials are preparing for the possibility of a strike in Iran in the coming days, according to people who are familiar with the case, a sign that Washington compiles the infrastructure to enter a conflict with Tehran directly.
The situation is still evolving and could change, said the people who asked an anonymity to discuss private discussions. Some people pointed to potential plans for a weekend strike. Top leaders with a handful of federal agencies have also started to prepare for an attack, one person said.
President Donald Trump has been publicly included for days about evoking such a strike in Iran, who has been doing a war with Israel for almost a week.
Trump told reporters in the White House on Wednesday that he ‘has ideas about what to do’ and that he would rather make the ‘definitive decision a second before it owes’ because the situation in the middle is fluent.
A few hours earlier Trump said: “I can do it. I can’t do it”, when he was asked if he was getting closer to Iran attacking.
An official from the White House said that all options remain on the table.
The openness of the President for War is a reversal of his public comments a week ago when Trump encouraged to achieve diplomatic conversations to achieve a nuclear disarmament with Iran.
Waiting for a few days to strike gives Iranian leaders extra runway to show Trump that they are willing to give up some uranium enrichment options to scare an American attack.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said earlier on Wednesday in a social media post that his country “was dedicated to diplomacy” and had never searched and would never look for nuclear weapons.
Foreign Ministers from the UK, France and Germany are planning to hold nuclear conversations with their Iranian counterpart on Friday in Geneva, according to a person who is familiar with the case.
Trump’s rhetoric has shifted considerably in recent days, because allies are impressed that Iran is close to obtaining a nuclear weapon. Senator Lindsey Graham from South Carolina has been a central voice that encouraged the president to consider military action, according to people who are familiar with the discussions. Trump has had several phone calls with Graham, the people said.
“He gave them a chance of diplomacy. I think they made a miscalculation,” Graham said about Iran on Wednesday. “The sooner we end this threat to humanity, the better.”
Graham, who said he spoke with Trump on Tuesday, said that the president is “very focused,” very calm “and” it “means” when he says he doesn’t want Iran to control a nuclear weapon.
Foreign wars
Trump has called for years to stay out of foreign conflicts and to campaign on a message that he would prevent another world war and concentrate on domestic issues.
Trump said he encouraged Benjamin Netanyahu in a phone call on Tuesday to “continue” with his attacking operations, and added that he gave the Israeli Prime Minister no indication that American troops would participate in the attacks.
Since the strikes of Israel have started, Iran has fired 400 ballistic rockets and hundreds of drones in Israel, in which 24 people are killed and more than 800 injured, according to the Israeli government. At least 224 Iranians were killed by the attacks of Israel.
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Published on June 19, 2025
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