(CNN) – The US has obtained new information that suggests that Israel is making preparations to make Iranian nuclear facilities, even while the Trump government has pursued a diplomatic deal with Tehran, several American officials told you to the latest intelligence to CNN.
Such a strike would be a brutal break with President Donald Trump, said American officials. It can also run the risk of finishing a broader regional conflict in the middle – something that the US has tried to avoid since the war in Gaza inflamed tensions that arose in 2023.
Civil servants warn that it is not clear that Israeli leaders have made a definitive decision, and that there is in fact deeply disagreement within the US government about the probability that Israel will eventually act. Whether and how Israel strikes will probably depend on what it thinks of the American negotiations with Tehran about his nuclear program.
But “the chance of an Israeli strike in an Iranian nuclear facility has risen considerably in recent months,” said another person who is familiar with American intelligence about the issue. “And the prospect of a US-Iran deal negotiated by Trump that does not remove all the uranium from Iran makes the chance of a strike more likely.”
The increased concerns not only arise from public and private messages from senior Israeli officials that such a step is considering, but also of intercepted Israeli communication and observations of Israeli military movements that can suggest an imminent attack, several sources that are familiar with intelligence.
Among the military preparations that the US has observed, the movement of air ammunition and the completion of an air exercise said two of the sources.
But those same indicators can also just be Israel who put pressure on Iran to give up the most important principles of his nuclear program by indicating the consequences if this is not the case the ever-changing complexities that the White House navigates.
CNN has asked the National Security Council and the office of the Israeli Prime Minister for comments. The Israeli embassy in Washington did not comment.
Trump has publicly threatened the military action against Iran as the efforts of his administration to negotiate a new nuclear deal to limit or eliminate Tehran’s nuclear program. But Trump also set a limit how long the US would make diplomatic efforts.
In a letter to the highest leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamei in mid -March, Trump proposed a 60 -day deadline for those efforts to succeed, according to a source that is familiar with communication. It is now more than 60 days since that letter was delivered and started 38 days since the first round of V interviews.
A senior Western diplomat who met the president earlier this month said that Trump communicated the US who would give negotiations only a few weeks to succeed before they resort to military strikes. But for now the policy of the White House is one of diplomacy.
That is what Israel has put ‘between a rock and a hard place’, said Jonathan Panikoff, a former high intelligence officer who specializes in the region. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is both under pressure to avoid a deal from the US Iran that Israel does not consider as satisfactory, while Trump has not already broken alienated with the Israeli Prime Minister about important safety issues in the region.
“At the end of the day, the Israeli decision -making will be based on American policy provisions and actions, and what similarities President Trump does or not with Iran,” said Panikoff, who added that he did not believe that Netanyahu would be willing to have the American relationship fully fracted without a strike.
Iran on its weakest in decades
Iran is in its weakest military position in decades, after Israel bombed his rocket production facilities and air defenses in October, combined with an economy weakened by sanctions and the decimation of Israel of its most powerful regional proxies. Israel, say American officials, sees a chance of opportunities.
The US steps up in the intelligence collection to be willing to help if Israeli leaders decide to strike, a high American officer told CNN. But a source that is familiar with the thinking of the Trump government that CNN will probably not help the US to perform Israel at the moment strikes in Iranian nuclear locations, apart from an important provocation by Tehran.
Israel does not have the capacity to destroy the nuclear program of Iran without American aid, including refueling in the air and the bombs needed to penetrate the facilities deeply underground, a need that is also reflected in earlier American intelligence reports, according to a source that is known with the issue.
An Israeli source told CNN that Israel would be willing to carry out military action if the US would negotiate what this source described as a “bad deal” with Iran that Israel cannot accept.
“I think it is more likely that they strike to try to let the deal fall apart if they think Trump is going to settle for a ‘bad deal’, said the other person who is familiar with our intelligence.” The Israelis have not been shy to sign that to us … Both public and private. “
An American intelligence assessment of February suggested that Israel could use military aircraft or long -distance missiles to take advantage of the affected air defense options of Iran, CNN reported earlier.
But the same assessment also described how such strikes would only set the Iranian nuclear program at least and would not be a remedy.
“It’s a real challenge for Netanyahu,” said Panikoff.
For now, American conversations with Iran are attached to a requirement that Tehran Uranium does not enrich, a process that makes armament possible, but that is also necessary to produce nuclear energy for civil purposes.
Special envoy Steve Witkoff, who leads the American delegation, told ABC News during the weekend that Washington “cannot even allow 1% of an enrichment options” under an agreement. “We made the Iranians a proposal that we think is tackling part of this without respecting them,” he said.
Khamenei said on Tuesday that he does not expect negotiations with the United States about the nuclear program from Tehran to ‘come up with a conclusion’, which the American requirement calls that Iran Uranium does not enrich a ‘big mistake’. Iran insists that it has the right to enrich under the United Nations Convention on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and says that it will not give up under any circumstances.
Another round of conversations can take place this week in Europe, according to Witkoff. Both the US and Iran have put proposals on the table, but after more than a month of the conversations that have been facilitated by Oman, there is no current American proposal with the registration of Trump, sources said.
American intelligence services have issued warnings in February that Israel will probably try to make facilities that this year strike the key to the nuclear program of Iran, CNN reported earlier.
It has been “consistently the Israeli position that the military option is the only option to stop Iran’s military nuclear program,” noted an American officer.
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