US military prepared to strike Iran as early as this weekend

The US military is prepared to strike Iran as early as this weekend, though President Donald Trump has yet to make a final decision on whether he’ll authorize such actions, sources familiar with the matter tell CNN. The White House has been briefed that the military could be ready for an attack by the weekend, after a significant buildup in recent days of air and naval assets in the Middle East, the sources said. But one source cautioned that Trump has privately argued both for and against military action and polled advisers and allies on what the best course of action is. Top administration national security officials met Wednesday in the White House Situation Room to discuss the situation in Iran, a person familiar with the meeting said. Trump was also briefed Wednesday by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, about their indirect talks with Iran that occurred a day earlier. It was not clear if Trump would make a decision by the weekend. “He is spending a lot of time thinking about this,” one source said. The US’s readiness to strike by the weekend was first reported by CBS News.The US military is prepared to strike Iran as early as this weekend, though President Donald Trump has yet to make a final decision on whether he’ll authorize such actions, sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.
The White House has been briefed that the military could be ready for an attack by the weekend, after a significant buildup in recent days of air and naval assets in the Middle East, the sources said. But one source cautioned that Trump has privately argued both for and against military action and polled advisers and allies on what the best course of action is.

Top administration national security officials met Wednesday in the White House Situation Room to discuss the situation in Iran, a person familiar with the meeting said. Trump was also briefed Wednesday by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, about their indirect talks with Iran that occurred a day earlier. It was not clear if Trump would make a decision by the weekend.
“He is spending a lot of time thinking about this,” one source said.
The US’s readiness to strike by the weekend was first reported by CBS News.

Iranian and US negotiators passed notes for three-and-a-half hours Tuesday during indirect talks in Geneva, though they departed with no clear resolution. Iran’s top negotiator said both sides had agreed upon a “set of guiding principles,” though an American official said “there are still a lot of details to discuss.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday that Iran was expected to provide more details on its negotiating position “in the next couple of weeks,” but she wouldn’t say whether Trump would hold off on military action within that timespan. 
“I’m not going to set deadlines on behalf of the president of the United States,” Leavitt said.
She added that while “diplomacy is always his first option,” military action remains on the table.
“There’s many reasons and arguments that one could make for a strike against Iran,” she said, adding Trump was relying on counsel from his national security team “first and foremost.”
The opaque statements have fueled increasing fears of military conflict between the two nations — even as officials ostensibly hold out hope for diplomacy. The USS Gerald Ford — the most advanced carrier group in the US arsenal — could arrive in the region as soon as this weekend, after a flurry of other military buildup. 
US Air Force assets based in the United Kingdom, including refueling tankers and fighter jets, are being repositioned closer to the Middle East, according to sources familiar with the movements.
For its part, Iran is fortifying several of its nuclear facilities, using concrete and large amounts of soil to bury key sites amid US military pressure, according to new satellite imagery and analysis from the Institute for Science and International Security. 
Iran’s atomic energy chief Mohammad Eslami said no country can deprive the Islamic republic of its right to nuclear enrichment, after US President Donald Trump again hinted at military action following talks in Geneva.
“The basis of the nuclear industry is enrichment. Whatever you want to do in the nuclear process, you need nuclear fuel,” said Eslami, according to a video published by Etemad daily on Thursday.
“Iran’s nuclear programme is proceeding according to the rules of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and no country can deprive Iran of the right to peacefully benefit from this technology.”

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in an interview made public on Wednesday, said that any new US strike on Iran would have serious consequences and called for restraint to find a solution to enable Iran to pursue a peaceful nuclear programme.
Lavrov’s interview with Saudi Arabia’s Al-Arabiya television was aired a day after US and Iranian negotiators held indirect talks in Geneva to head off a new mounting crisis between Washington and Tehran.
“The consequences are not good. There have already been strikes on Iran on nuclear sites under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency. From what we can judge there were real risks of a nuclear incident,” Lavrov said in the interview, which was posted on his ministry’s website.
“I am carefully watching reactions in the region from Arab countries, Gulf monarchies. No one wants an increase in tension. Everyone understands this is playing with fire.”
On the other hand, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called on Thursday for all citizens to leave Iran, after US President Donald Trump again hinted at military action against the Islamic republic.
“Everyone who is still in Iran must leave immediately, and under no circumstances should anyone plan to travel to that country,” he said at a press conference.
He added that “the possibility of heated conflict is very real, and in a few, a dozen or several dozen hours, evacuation may no longer be an option”.