Trump approves attack plan for Iran, decision to strike in two weeks

Summary

• Trump approves attack plans for Iran, but will only decide whether to launch strike within two weeks.

• Iran’s deputy foreign minister warns “hell for the whole region” if US joins the fray.

US President Donald Trump has approved the attack plans for Iran but will make a decision on whether to initiate a strike “within two weeks”, according to international media reports.

Trump said that he is waiting to see if Tehran will abandon its nuclear programme.

BBC quoted Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh, cautioning that if the US entered the fray, it would cause “hell for the whole region.”

He reminded Trump that the current conflict is not America’s war, and if the US chose to strike Iran, the president would always be remembered as “entering a war he doesn’t belong in".

He said US involvement would turn the conflict into a “quagmire”, continue aggression and delay an end to the “brutal atrocities”.

Israel’s ‘sabotage’

Commenting on Trump’s repeated claims that the conflict could have been avoided if Iran had accepted a nuclear deal, Khatibzadeh blamed Israel.

He said Tehran was in the process of negotiations until Israel “sabotaged” it by launching attacks.

“We were planning to have the sixth round of nuclear talks in Muscat, and we were actually on the verge of reaching an agreement,” he said.

“President Trump knows better than anybody else that we were on the verge of reaching an agreement,” he added.

Khatibzadeh also rejected claims by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog, that Iran has accumulated enough uranium enriched to 60 percent purity - just a short technical step from the 90 percent required for weapons-grade material - to potentially produce nuclear bombs.

“This is nonsense. You cannot start a war based on speculation or intention. If we wanted to have a nuclear bomb, we would have had it way before.

“Iran has never developed any programme for nuclear weaponisation of peaceful nuclear activities. Bottom line,” he emphasised.

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