{"id":291057,"date":"2026-02-19T04:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T04:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/291057\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T04:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T04:28:09","slug":"us-military-ready-for-possible-iran-strikes-but-trump-yet-to-make-decision-reports-say-us-foreign-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/291057\/","title":{"rendered":"US military ready for possible Iran strikes but Trump yet to make decision, reports say | US foreign policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US military is ready for possible strikes on Iran<\/a> as soon as this weekend, multiple news outlets reported Wednesday citing unnamed sources.<\/p>\n

However, the reports said, Donald Trump<\/a> has yet to make a final decision on whether to carry out an attack. Trump has repeatedly demanded Iran cease its nuclear program, and has warned he intends to use force if no deal is reached.<\/p>\n

According to the New York Times<\/a>, CBS News<\/a> and CNN<\/a>, the US military has assembled sufficient air and naval resources in the Middle East to launch an attack in the coming days.<\/p>\n

Reuters, citing an unnamed senior US official, offered a slightly different timeline, reporting that top US national security advisers were told during a meeting in the White House Situation Room on Wednesday that all US military forces deployed to the region should be in place by mid-March.<\/p>\n

CBS also noted<\/a> the timeline for a strike was likely to extend beyond this weekend.<\/p>\n

Iran is expected to submit a written proposal on how to resolve its standoff with the United States in the wake of talks with the US in Geneva on Tuesday, the official told Reuters.<\/p>\n

During a Wednesday press conference, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt did not answer a question about an exact deadline Trump would give Iran to achieve a deal before engaging in military action.<\/p>\n

\u201cIran would be very wise to make a deal with President Trump,\u201d she said, adding that the Trump administration \u201ctotally obliterated Iran\u2019s nuclear facilities\u201d, but that \u201cdiplomacy\u201d was always the president\u2019s \u201cfirst option\u201d.<\/p>\n

She also noted that while there was a \u201clittle bit of progress\u201d following Tuesday\u2019s talks in Geneva, \u201cwe\u2019re still very far apart on some issues\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is spending a lot of time thinking about this,\u201d one source told CNN, speaking about Trump.<\/p>\n

According to Axios reporter Barak Ravid, Trump met<\/a> on Wednesday with the two advisers leading indirect talks with Iran: Steve Witkoff, a real estate developer turned envoy, and Jared Kushner, the president\u2019s son-in-law.<\/p>\n

On Israeli television, Ravid reported<\/a> that US sources told him the talks in Geneva with Iran\u2019s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, were a \u201cnothingburger\u201d and that the Pentagon was preparing for a joint Israeli-US offensive that could last weeks. According to Ravid\u2019s sources, Iran only has until the end of February to offer concessions on its nuclear program.<\/p>\n

The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier group<\/a> and its flotilla of warships is already in the region, CBS News noted, and a second carrier group, the USS Gerald Ford<\/a>, is en route to the Middle East.<\/p>\n

As of Wednesday, the Ford was off the coast of west Africa, according to maritime vessel tracking data and open-source researchers.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Iran\u2019s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, posted an AI-generated image of the Ford in a maritime grave on social media, alongside a caption that read: \u201cMore dangerous than that warship is the weapon that can send that warship to the bottom of the sea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dozens of refueling tankers and more than 50 additional fighter jets are also in the region, the New York Times reports<\/a>. At the same time, the Pentagon is moving some personnel out of the Middle East to avoid potential counterattacks if the US moves forward with a strike, CBS said, citing multiple officials.<\/p>\n

Preparations are also under way in Israel for the possibility of joining strikes with the United States, the New York Times reported, citing two defense officials.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Saudi Arabia\u2019s Al-Arabiya television that aired on Wednesday, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said \u201cthe consequences are not good\u201d of any new US strike on Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one wants an increase in tension. Everyone understands this is playing with fire,\u201d Lavrov said, calling for the United States to avoid striking Iran and allow the country to pursue a peaceful nuclear program.<\/p>\n

In June, the US struck key nuclear enrichment sites<\/a> in Iran and Israeli fighter jets struck \u201cdozens\u201d of targets across the country, including a long-range missile site in Yazd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US military is ready for possible strikes on Iran as soon as this weekend, multiple news outlets…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-291057","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}