June 18 (UPI) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday night approved attack plans against Iran, but hasn't made a final decision to take the country into a war to assist Israel.
Trump has held off on deciding to strike in case Iran agrees to abandon its nuclear program, sources told CBS News and The Wall Street Journal. The United States had been negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran until the airstrikes.
"I like to make the final decision one second before it's due, because things change, especially with war "because things change, especially with war," Trump told reporters at the White House.
In the meantime, Israel and Iran continue to trade airstrikes. The Israeli military said it has hit military targets in Tehran, the nation's capital, and Iran claimed to fire ballistic missiles toward Israel.
Related
The Israeli military has significantly degraded Iran's ability to fire large barrages of missiles toward Israel, an Israeli military official told CNN. So, Israel is now using smaller missiles.
Israel has destroyed approximately 40% of Iran's ballistic missile launchers, the official said. Also, senior Iranian commanders responsible for air defense have been killed.
Iran has fired approximately 400 ballistic missiles and 1,000 drones at Israel since the conflict between the two countries began on Friday, an Israeli military official told CNN.
Air raid sirens sounded across central and northern Israel just before midnight local time after Iran launched missiles at the country, including so-called Fattah-1 hypersonic missiles.
Israel's military intercepted a drone headed toward Israeli territory after sirens were activated in the Golan Heights on Wednesday night.
In the latest Israel airstrikes early Thursday, air defense systems have been activated over Tehran, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps posted on Telegram just before 4 a.m. local time.
Earlier, Israel used 60 fighters, which "struck weapons production sites, centrifuge production sites, as well as research and development sites of the Iranian regime's nuclear weapons development project," the IDF said in a statement. "These sites were designated to allow the Iranian regime to expand the scale and pace of its uranium enrichment purpose of developing nuclear weapons."
In all, 20 military sites were targeted.
The IDF said the strikes "directly degraded" Iran's ability to threaten Israel and the wider region.
"We have delivered significant blows to the Iranian regime, and as such, they have been pushed back into central Iran. They are now focusing their efforts on conducting missile fire from the area of Isfahan. We are aiming at military targets; they are attacking civilian homes," IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said.
At the G-7 in Alberta, Canada, French President Emmanuel Macron said he has named Jean-Noel Barrot, his foreign minister, to work with European partners on a negotiated proposal to end fighting, according to a statement from the Elysee.
Trump departed the summit on Monday night to focus on the United States' response to Iran.
Both sides speak out
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Trump for "standing by our side."
In a video message shared by his office Wednesday, Netanyahu said "We are in continuous communication, including last night -- we had a very warm conversation."
Netanyahu acknowledges Israel is suffering "many losses, painful losses." But he added: "We see that the home front is strong, the people are steadfast and Israel is stronger than ever."
Iran warned against the United States entering the war.
Iran's spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a national address that any U.S. military intervention would result in "irreparable damage."
That could include striking U.S. air bases in the Middle East.
Iran said Wednesday it "does not negotiate under duress," and would "respond to any threat with a counter-threat."
The United States hasn't participated in Israel's airstrikes.
Yoav Gallant, Israel's former defense minister, said U.S. involvement in the Iran conflict would "create a better future" for the world.
"In this specific issue, what is good for the American people is exactly what is good for the world and for Israel," he told CNN.
The 80-minute Situation Room meeting of Trump's key Cabinet officials Tuesday night concluded without a clear consensus, CBS News reported, but one option on the table was sending U.S. bombers to destroy underground nuclear sites that are impenetrable to Israeli warplanes.
Nuclear targets
Trump has been weighing whether to hit Fordo, an underground uranium facility. The United States is the only nation with missiles capable of striking so far below the surface.
Israel has been bombing Iranian nuclear and military targets since Thursday.
Iran's heavily fortified Fordow uranium enrichment plant is 300 feet under a mountain near Qom and 85 miles south of Tehran,.
Fordow was believed to be the facility most likely to reach a critical threshold where Iran's nuclear development program -- which it has always insisted is for civilian purposes only -- crosses into a program capable of producing a nuclear warhead.
Israeli airstrikes on the facility with bunker-busting bombs have thus far failed to penetrate the facility, with the International Atomic Energy Agency saying it had sustained no damage as of Monday.
"No damage has been seen at the site of the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant or at the Khondab heavy water reactor, which is under construction. Bushehr nuclear power plant has not been targeted nor affected by the recent attacks, and neither has the Tehran Research Reactor," IAEA Secretary General Rafael Grossi told the agency's board.
However, he said Israeli strikes had caused considerable damage to above-ground facilities at Esfahan and Natanz, with one of the plants having produced U-235 uranium enriched up to 60%.
Naturally occurring U-235 uranium contains only a tiny proportion of chain-reacting U-235 isotope and must be "enriched" 3% to 5% for nuclear power purposes. To become weapons-grade, U-235 needs to be enriched to above 90%, according to the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, although the super-enriched uranium is also used to produce isotopes used for nuclear medicine scans and radiotherapy.
The United States has powerful weapons that could, with repeated hits, penetrate a facility such as Fordow.
The BBC reported that would require deployment of America's so-called Massive Ordnance Penetrator, a 30,000-pound bomb delivered by the U.S. Air Force's B-2 stealth bomber, which can carry two of the monster munitions.
In a post on X, the Israel Defense Forces said the centrifuges made at the plant were for enriching uranium beyond civilian levels. Other sites hit included a facility making parts for surface-to-surface missiles used against Israel and another plant making surface-to-air missile components used to target aircraft.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Israel has agreed to "ensure" safety of Russians working at Iranian nuclear plant.
"Our experts are in the field, we're talking about over 200 people," Putin said on the sidelines of an economic conference in St. Petersburg.
Putin also urged nations to "seek ways to end hostilities" between Iran and Israel while maintaining Iran's "peaceful" nuclear activities and Israel's security.
U.S. military in Middle East
The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford will deploy next week from its homeport of Norfolk, Va., to waters surrounding Europe and Africa, becoming the third carrier group in the region, a U.S. defense official told Stars & Stripes on Wednesday.
The USS Ford, which is the newest of the 11 U.S. carriers when it was commissioned in 2017, was supposed to be deployed later to the 6th Fleet area of operations.
The Ford was sent to the Eastern Mediterranean after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas to Israel.
The USS Carl Vinson and its strike group have been operating in the U.S. Central Command area, which oversees military operations in the Middle East.
The USS Nimitz carrier strike group was ordered to move from an Indo-Pacific deployment to support U.S. forces in the Middle East. The carrier entered the Strait of Malacca on Monday.
And other ships, including Navy destroyers, are also headed to the region, a U.S. official told NBC News. Those ships, which are now based in U.S. European Command, include ballistic missile defense, or BMD, capabilities. Some destroyers are now stationed off Israel's coast in the Mediterranean.
The George Washington carrier group is the only other ship not at its home port. It is operating in the Philippine Sea.
There are about 40,000 active-duty U.S. troops and personnel in the Middle East. Central Command is in Qatar.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week authorized the "voluntary departure" of all military dependents in the region.
