Washington/ Cairo/Tehran – US President Donald Trump has ordered another wave of strikes against Iran, with the aim of forcing the Islamic Republic’s surrender, The Wall Street Journal reported early Saturday, with other reports suggesting Israel could take part in attacks expected to target Iran’s energy infrastructure.
Citing US officials, the report said the bombing was expected to last several days and could start as soon as this weekend. Trump had earlier indicated that the US would be resuming hostilities.
“We’ll be hitting them very hard,” Trump said about Iran on Friday in an exchange with reporters during a cabinet meeting. “You know, at some point they’re going to say, ‘We just can’t take it anymore.’”
Asked if Americans should be prepared for the back-and-forth strikes between the US and Iran to continue, Trump responded, “A little bit.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warns of any “adventurous action” by the US in separate phone calls with his Turkish counterpart and Pakistan’s army commander, according to the Iranian minister’s account on Telegram. Araghchi stresses his country’s readiness to respond decisively to any “aggression.”
US embassies in Jerusalem and other Middle Eastern capitals later called on American citizens to avoid traveling to the region, and advised those in the Middle East to consider leaving or be ready to depart due to the “potential for unforeseen escalation.”
“The Iranian regime is unpredictable, as seen by its recent decisions to attack areas in the region without warning or provocations as well as to expand attacks to areas not previously targeted (such as Egypt),” US embassies from Cairo eastward said in identical messages published on their respective websites.
Previous talks between the two parties following an April truce stalled, with the ceasefire collapsing about a month ago and Iran again obstructing the Strait of Hormuz, a vital conduit for the global supply of oil and gas.
Meanwhile, reports circulated about the possibility of Israeli involvement in the planned strikes.
CNN reported that there was no indication as of Saturday that Israel would participate in the potential offensive, after sources cited by CBS said the US and Israel were jointly planning an imminent bombing campaign on Iranian energy facilities.
ABC News cited a source as saying the strikes were discussed with Israeli officials, but that it remains unclear if Israel will be directly involved.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House this week for his first in-person talks with Trump since the Iran war began in February, describing the meeting as an opportunity “to coordinate on things that are important for the security and for the future of Israel.”
Beyond those remarks, few details regarding the content of the discussions were made public. A senior official in the prime minister’s entourage told The Times of Israel shortly after the sit-down that they “talked about all arenas — primarily Iran.”
Following the report of US attack plans, Iran’s military accused the US of “escalating tensions” in the Middle East, warning countries in the region against cooperating with Washington.
“The United States is rapidly moving down the path of escalating tensions in the region,” said Ali Abdollahi, head of Iran’s military central command. “Any country serving as a defensive shield for criminal and aggressive America will be engulfed by the flames of war.”
With the resumption of hostilities potentially looming, The Washington Post reported that the head of the US military’s European Command, Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, sent the Pentagon a written warning this week that if he does not receive another Navy destroyer, he “will be forced to choose defense of the United States ‘homeland’ over that of Israel, according to officials.
The European Command coordinates operations in the Mediterranean Sea, where its vessels help shoot down projectiles launched at Israel from both Iran and Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels. Two of the European Command’s five Rota, Spain-based destroyers were stationed in the Mediterranean as of Friday, according to the newspaper.
On the other hand, the European Command is also responsible for protecting against potential Russian incursions into NATO territory and the threat posed by Russia’s long-range missiles, which can reach the US, the outlet noted.
Earlier this week, Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Israel “very much” wanted to strike Iran, but that the US “is not approving it at the moment because of the concern that Iran would attack neighboring countries, causing a global oil crisis.”
Israel is presumably not the only target of Iran’s threats, as Saudi Arabia joined the US in striking Iran-backed militant groups in Iraq earlier this week.
The US last struck Iran early Thursday, a day after Iran targeted American troops in the region with ballistic missiles. Mediator Pakistan insisted later that day that negotiations were ongoing. But Iranian strikes continued on Friday and into Saturday.
The Kuwaiti defense ministry said Saturday that it intercepted drones fired by Iran that targeted “vital” sites, including an unspecified government facility in the Gulf state’s north and vehicles of a civilian company on Kuwait’s Bubiyan Island.
Shrapnel caused some material damage, but no one was hurt, the Kuwaiti ministry said, vowing to “safeguard the sovereignty of the homeland.”
