Trump Explores Diplomacy With Iran While Weighing Strikes, Officials Say
Washington: President Donald Trump is exploring options for diplomacy with Iran even as he weighs whether to attack the country to try to deter its leaders from killing more protesters, U.S. officials said Monday.
The Pentagon is presenting a wider range of strike options to Trump than previously reported. Possible targets include Iran's nuclear program, going beyond the U.S. airstrikes that battered it in June, and ballistic missile sites, a U.S. official said.
But the narrower options, a cyberattack or a strike against Iran's domestic security apparatus, which is using lethal force against protesters, are more likely, the official said. Any attack is at least several days away, and could prompt a vigorous retaliation from Iran, the official said. Trump is scheduled to be briefed on options Tuesday.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said airstrikes were "one of the many, many options that are on the table," but that "diplomacy is always the first option for the president."
"What you're hearing publicly from the Iranian regime is quite different from the messages the administration is receiving privately," she added.
That suggested that the private missives the administration has received were less fiery than the Iranian government's bellicose public messages about the United States since Trump's initial threats of a new attack.
Trump told reporters Sunday night that it appeared that Iran had crossed his red line, after he said this month that he would come to the aid of protesters if the Iranian government used lethal force against them.
On Monday afternoon, Trump issued a new threat, saying in a social media post that the United States would impose a tariff of 25% on "any and all business" done with the United States by countries that are also engaged in commerce with Iran. It is unclear how or whether this would be enacted.
On Monday, Iranian officials appeared to temper some of their anti-American rhetoric of recent days by saying they were ready to talk with the Trump administration again. "We are not looking for war, but we are prepared for war -- even more prepared than the previous war," Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told a conference of foreign ambassadors in the capital, Tehran, broadcast by state television.
He appeared to be referring to the 12-day war with Israel in June, during which the United States joined Israel to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities.
The Pentagon is presenting a wider range of strike options to Trump than previously reported. Possible targets include Iran's nuclear program, going beyond the U.S. airstrikes that battered it in June, and ballistic missile sites, a U.S. official said.
But the narrower options, a cyberattack or a strike against Iran's domestic security apparatus, which is using lethal force against protesters, are more likely, the official said. Any attack is at least several days away, and could prompt a vigorous retaliation from Iran, the official said. Trump is scheduled to be briefed on options Tuesday.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said airstrikes were "one of the many, many options that are on the table," but that "diplomacy is always the first option for the president."
"What you're hearing publicly from the Iranian regime is quite different from the messages the administration is receiving privately," she added.
That suggested that the private missives the administration has received were less fiery than the Iranian government's bellicose public messages about the United States since Trump's initial threats of a new attack.
Trump told reporters Sunday night that it appeared that Iran had crossed his red line, after he said this month that he would come to the aid of protesters if the Iranian government used lethal force against them.
On Monday afternoon, Trump issued a new threat, saying in a social media post that the United States would impose a tariff of 25% on "any and all business" done with the United States by countries that are also engaged in commerce with Iran. It is unclear how or whether this would be enacted.
On Monday, Iranian officials appeared to temper some of their anti-American rhetoric of recent days by saying they were ready to talk with the Trump administration again. "We are not looking for war, but we are prepared for war -- even more prepared than the previous war," Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told a conference of foreign ambassadors in the capital, Tehran, broadcast by state television.
He appeared to be referring to the 12-day war with Israel in June, during which the United States joined Israel to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities.
