US President Donald Trump is considering a major new strike on Iran after preliminary talks between Washington and Tehran failed to produce any meaningful outcome on US efforts to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
According to CNN sources, Trump is weighing a large-scale attack on the Khamenei-led Islamic Republic, with a focus on targeting senior figures in Iran’s leadership.
Reuters sources said the discussions also explored creating conditions for “regime change” following a harsh crackdown by the Tehran government that crushed a nationwide protest movement earlier this month, killing thousands of people.
Iran witnessed one of the largest anti-regime protests in decades, driven by economic hardship, rising prices and inflation. Trump is said to believe the unrest could be used to consolidate anti-Khamenei sentiment and potentially turn it in his favour to facilitate a regime change.
Trump’s tensions with Iran are long-standing and date back to his first term in office. He has consistently sought to pressure Tehran into curbing its nuclear aspirations, keeping Iran on edge even after Operation Midnight Hammer, when US forces struck Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Here are Donald Trump’s demands
- Trump is seeking talks with Iran before launching any full-scale military action against the Khamenei-led regime. In a social media post, he said Tehran must return to the negotiating table to agree to “a fair and equitable deal — NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS.” He also warned that any future US strike would be “far worse” than last summer’s attack, when American forces hit three Iranian nuclear sites.
- At the same time, the US has laid out strict preconditions for any meeting with Iranian officials, sources said. These include a permanent halt to uranium enrichment at the core of Iran’s nuclear programme, new restrictions on its ballistic missile programme, and an end to all support for Iranian proxy groups in the region.
- The biggest point of contention, according to sources, is Washington’s demand that Iran accept limits on the range of its ballistic missiles. This is a major concern for Israel, which depleted much of its missile interceptor stockpile while shooting down Iranian ballistic missiles during last June’s 12-day war.
- With US naval forces now positioned in the Middle East, Trump issued a sharp warning to Iran, describing the American armada as “ready, willing, and able” to carry out its mission “with speed and violence, if necessary,” drawing a comparison with past US actions against Venezuela.
