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Israel is considering taking military action against Iran in the coming days despite President Donald Trump’s high-level discussion with Tehran over a diplomatic contract to cut its nuclear program.
According to NBC News, Israel has become even more serious about its unilateral strike against Iran as negotiations between the US and Iran appears to be closer to a preliminary or framework agreement that includes provisions that Israel believes are unacceptable.
Israel’s unilateral strike or action against Iran is a dramatic break with the Trump administration and is opposed to such a step.
The Trump administration is waiting for an action from Iran on the proposed framework for nuclear deals, and Trump publicly said Tehran has become more stringent in negotiations.
The concept of a new front in a boiling conflict has urged the Trump administration to order all embassies within the attack range of Iranian missiles, aircraft and other assets (including missions in the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe), and send cables about risks and measures to mitigate risk to Americans.
The US and other officials are wary of waiting for Israel’s impressive Iran potential, officials said.
The White House has not explained the issue to senior lawmakers, according to its aides and US officials.
One major concern is Iran’s retaliation against local US officials or assets for any action.
Israel, which relies on intelligence news reports or other direct and logistics assistance from the US, may be in a position to take unilateral action against Tehran, a familiar source said. Sources were not aware of our involvement planned for possible actions, from familiar sources and officials. The US could support it with air refueling and sharing intelligence news rather than supporting the movement, but sources and officials were not aware of the plan at this point.
US officials have announced the voluntary departure of mandatory employees from the area. The Department of Defense has announced the voluntary departure of military families from locations throughout the US Central Command operating area.
General Erik Kurilla, commander of Centcom, was scheduled to testify at Capitol Hill on Thursday, but the hearing was postponed late Wednesday without explanation. A familiar source said Kurilla must focus on this development.
Another possible factor: Iran is restructuring its strategic air defense, and manned strikes will soon become exponentially more dangerous to Israeli pilots. In October, Israel destroyed almost all of Iran’s strategic air defense systems (mainly S-300), but much of the damage was on radars or other parts that could be rebuilt. Israeli windows for manned strikes may be closed without being threatened by Iran’s coordinated strategic air defense.
Israel will likely prefer US military and intelligence support, particularly against strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities, but October showed that it could do a lot.
Michael Knights of the Washington Near East Policy Institute said the evacuation of non-essential staff members at the US embassy in Iraq will send a message to Tehran that Trump does not necessarily prevent Israel from launching threatened attacks on Iran.
“It’s about trying to respect the president’s wishes in Iran,” Knights said.
Iran failed to meet its two-month deadline, but Trump is set to reach an agreement on the country’s nuclear activities, which he said is frustrated.
The Knight and the source with knowledge of the matter said it was unclear whether Israel will take on a limited military strike right now or wait until further nuclear negotiations take place.
Trump has expressed growing dissatisfaction with Iran’s stance in recent indirect talks, portraying Tehran as flexible and slowly changing.
“They just want things you can’t do. They don’t want to give up on things they have to give up,” Trump told reporters Monday. “They want to concentrate. They can’t concentrate.”
This story first appeared on nbcnews.com. More from NBC News:
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