As President Donald Trump huddled with his top advisers in the White House Situation Room on Tuesday, U.S. officers signaled that the following 24 to 48 hours could be important in figuring out whether or not a diplomatic resolution with Iran is feasible — or if the president may resort to navy motion as an alternative.
Trump considerably ramped up his rhetoric towards the Iranian regime forward of the assembly, asserting that the U.S. knew precisely the place Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was hiding.
“He’s a simple goal, however is secure there — We aren’t going to take him out (kill!), at the least not for now. However we do not need missiles shot at civilians, or American troopers. Our persistence is carrying skinny,” Trump wrote on social media.
“We now have full and complete management of the skies over Iran,” he claimed in one other publish.
President Donald Trump departs after a household photograph in the course of the Group of Seven Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada, June 16, 2025.
Suzanne Plunkett/Pool/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
A final probability for diplomacy?
Regardless of the obvious saber rattling, U.S. negotiators on Tuesday continued to evaluate that Iran is in a weak place and could possibly be pressured to come back again to the negotiating desk and to in the end settle for a deal that might require it abandon all nuclear enrichment, in accordance with a number of officers concerned within the diplomatic course of.
As Iran and Israel commerce blows, the Iranian regime has signaled a willingness to renew discussions with the U.S., the officers stated, including that the Trump administration has been searching for extra concrete commitments earlier than backing off the warfare path.
If Iran returns to the negotiations and agrees to drop its uranium enrichment, U.S. officers imagine a high-level assembly led by Particular Envoy Steve Witkoff and probably Vice President JD Vance would occur as quickly as this week.
However that state of affairs doubtless requires Iran to maneuver shortly. The president has already acknowledged his persistence with the scenario within the Center East is carrying skinny.
Sources accustomed to the president’s mindset stated he has grown pissed off by a destabilized Iran’s lack of ability to supply the administration with quick solutions and in addition seems extremely disinclined to permit for a scenario to unfold the place it seems as if Tehran has efficiently known as his navy bluff.
Airmen have a look at a GBU-57, or the Huge Ordnance Penetrator bomb, at Whiteman Air Base in Missouri, Might 2, 2023.
U.S. Air Drive through AP, FILE
A ‘defensive’ US posture — for now
The U.S. navy is already sending property towards the area, together with sending further plane and a second plane service and its strike group to the Center East — all strikes which are defensive in nature, officers say.
“We’re sturdy, we’re ready, we’re defensive and current,” Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth stated of the U.S. posture within the Center East throughout an interview with Fox Information on Monday.
However whereas the repositioning of property is meant to guard the 40,000 estimated American troops stationed within the area, it additionally leaves choices open for the Trump administration if it decides to immediately help with Israel’s ongoing offensive operation towards Iran.
“It is our function to maintain choices on the desk, however our posture continues to be defensive,” stated a U.S. official.
A B-2 Spirit returns to Whiteman Air Drive Base, Missouri, from a deployment to Diego Garcia, British Indian Ocean Territory, Might 9, 2025.
Senior Airman Devan Halstead/509th Bomb Wing/US Air Drive
A significant query is whether or not the U.S. will deploy its B-2 stealth bombers. The heavy strategic bombers are able to carrying the 30,000 pound Massive Ordnance Penetrator bunker-buster bombs, which could be capable of destroy Iran’s deep underground nuclear facility on the Fordo Gasoline Enrichment Plant.
At present, the navy’s fleet of 19 B-2 bombers is positioned at Whiteman Air Drive Base in Missouri. Six of the plane had been beforehand deployed to the airbase on the island of Diego Garcia within the Indian Ocean — a lot nearer to Iran. Nonetheless, they had been changed by B-52 long-range bombers which aren’t able to carrying the bunker-buster bombs wanted to destroy the Fordo website.
Already, roughly a dozen U.S. Navy vessels are in Bahrain’s territorial waters away from publish, in accordance with a Protection Division official, who stated that the ships do not need any official tasking. Amongst them are a littoral fight ship, 4 minesweepers, and 6 water patrol craft, the official stated.
The Navy additionally has two destroyers within the Crimson Sea, an plane service, and three different floor ships within the Arabian Sea. Two extra American destroyers are within the jap Mediterranean Sea — every geared up with missile protection programs able to capturing down Iranian ballistic missiles.
A shifting US agenda
Indicators the Trump administration could possibly be inching towards navy motion might embody canceling the president’s plans to journey to the Netherlands for a NATO summit subsequent week.
At a press briefing on Tuesday, State Division spokesperson Tammy Bruce stated the summit was nonetheless “on the books” — however stated the scenario might change relying on the dynamic with Iran.
“That is one thing that’s transferring — as issues are inclined to — very quickly. So, I’d say that something is feasible,” she stated.
Already, the president made an early exit from the G7 summit in Canada, opting to chop his time there quick on Monday so as to monitor the scenario within the Center East from the White Home.
