- cross-posted to:
- worldnews@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- worldnews@lemmy.ml
- Trump says it has been difficult to make a deal with Iran
- US fully expects Iran to retaliate, official says
- A sustained campaign carries more risk to US forces, broader Middle East
WASHINGTON, Feb 13 (Reuters) - The U.S. military is preparing for the possibility of sustained, weeks-long operations against Iran if President Donald Trump orders an attack, two U.S. officials told Reuters, in what could become a far more serious conflict than previously seen between the countries.
The disclosure by the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the planning, raises the stakes for the diplomacy underway between the United States and Iran.
U.S. and Iranian diplomats held talks in Oman last week in an effort to revive diplomacy over Tehran’s nuclear program, after Trump amassed military forces in the region, raising fears of new military action.
U.S. officials said on Friday the Pentagon was sending an additional aircraft carrier to the Middle East, adding thousands more troops along with fighter aircraft, guided-missile destroyers and other firepower capable of waging attacks and defending against them.
Trump, speaking to U.S. troops on Friday at a base in North Carolina, said it had “been difficult to make a deal” with Iran.
“Sometimes you have to have fear. That’s the only thing that really will get the situation taken care of,” Trump said.
i mean that saudis were somewhat restrained about airstrikes, at least publicly, but this action would cause them to not be so. even if they tried, there are extra air defences dragged to saudi for exactly this purpose; every cargo flight and every extra warship makes odds worse for iran, as more missiles would be intercepted, but even if nobody dies, shooting missiles would have diplomatic consequences. another action that would result in rising oil prices would be iran shooting ships in strait of hormuz, but this would also close access to their own single large oil terminal, and there are american warships nearby anyway, so it’s perhaps unwise decision to make today
at this point, i think that decision to strike already has been made, and they’re just stalling so that more metal can come from across the atlantic. dragging an aircraft carrier out there is not done for no reason, and the second one they want to put out there would need to have some of pre-deployment training shortened and done on the way, which is unusual and avoided because there were accidents that this training was supposed to mitigate