Donald Trump has been keeping his plans for what he intends to do about Iran, Israel, and the war against the Iranian nuclear program deliberately disingenuous. But the movement of U.S. forces, Israel's recent targeting of Iranian atomic infrastructure (including some additional telling blows against the Natanz enrichment facility), and media reports of discussions inside the White House all point to Trump joining with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in solving the problem of the Iranian nuclear program once and for all.
Newsweek reports that there have been increasing deployments in recent weeks of aircraft at our base in Diego Garcia. This is where the B-2 Spirit Stealth bomber would be based in case of a war in the Middle East. The Spirit is the only aircraft in the world that can carry the 30,000 lb bunker-busting bomb needed to penetrate 300 feet underground at the Fordow enrichment facility and destroy Iran's supply of advanced centrifuges.
There are other reasons to increase deployments at Diego Garcia, including the protection of our troops in the region. However, the option to use the B-2 Spirit is available if Trump chooses to utilize it.
There's also the USS Nimitz carrier group, which is now in transit from the Western Pacific toward the Middle East. The Nimitz would be the third carrier group deployed to the Middle East.
Meanwhile, Israel has stepped up its campaign to destroy Iranian nuclear infrastructure. The IDF attacked two centrifuge production plants in Tehran.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) identifies the facilities as the TESA complex in Karaj and the Tehran Research Center.
"At the Tehran site, one building was hit where advanced centrifuge rotors were manufactured and tested,” says the IAEA on X. “At Karaj, two buildings were destroyed where different centrifuge components were manufactured.”
Israel has also delivered another blow to the Natanz nuclear enrichment site, leading the IAEA to warn of radioactive contamination underground. The IDF attacked Natanz on June 13, cutting power to the centrifuge rooms and probably disrupting the nuclear cascade, leading to the destruction of most of the machines. This latest attack apparently hit the rooms themselves, pointing to a strike fairly close to the original hole in the ground.
The IDF is doing most of the work in destroying Iran's ability to manufacture a nuclear weapon. The battlefield is prepared for the U.S. to deliver a haymaking knockout blow that would prevent Iran from restarting its bomb program.
“The movement right now is away from diplomacy and toward U.S. involvement,” a Trump administration official told Politico. “We are moving toward taking out Iranian nuclear facilities.”
The White House firmly believes U.S. involvement can be restricted to a series of tactical strikes against specific facilities, without descending into an extended war. “No one in the West Wing is talking regime change,” the same administration official tells Dasha. “It’s not regime change. It’s taking out their nukes.”
Good luck with that: It’s certainly possible the U.S. could deliver carefully targeted strikes against Iran’s nuclear sites with no real comeback. After all, Iran’s most powerful allies, Russia and China, have been largely muted so far, and the already-weakened Iranian regime may decide it’s safest to avoid an escalation that may further loosen its grip on the country. But equally — it’s easier to start a war than to end one, as Gabriel García Márquez famously wrote. And we’ve seen these things get out of hand before.
The signs point to a U.S. strike against Iran in the next few hours or days. At the very least, Donald Trump has all the options he needs at his fingertips to give the "go" signal and send in the planes.
There will probably never be a better chance to take out Iran's nuclear program.
