Trump's Team Evaluates Options, Including Preemptive Airstrikes, to Prevent Iran from Developing Nuclear Weapons

According to WSJ, the new President of the United States, Donald Trump, is evaluating options to change the long-standing policy of containing Tehran through diplomacy and sanctions, including preventive airstrikes, to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

The military option against nuclear facilities is being more seriously reconsidered by some members of the transition team, as they assess the collapse of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, the future of U.S. troops in the region, and Israel's efforts to eliminate the regime’s proxy militias, Hezbollah and Hamas.

Transition officials stated that the weakening of Iran's regional position and the recent revelations of Tehran's developing nuclear activities have accelerated sensitive internal discussions. However, all negotiations on this matter are still in preliminary stages.

Two individuals familiar with the discussions reported that Trump expressed concern in his recent phone calls with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the emergence of Iran's nuclear activities on his watch and indicated he was seeking proposals to prevent this outcome. The elected president is looking for plans that avoid igniting a new war, especially as strikes on Tehran's nuclear facilities could potentially set the U.S. and Iran on a collision course.

Iran possesses enough highly enriched uranium to potentially build four nuclear bombs, making it the only non-nuclear weapon state capable of producing fissile material at a 60% weapon-grade level. Transforming this stock into weapons-grade nuclear fuel would take only a few days.