 "President Donald Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrive for a news conference in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, in Washington. AP")
Israel is said to have told the US that it’s fully ready to launch an operation into Iran, CBS News reported Thursday (June 12), citing several American officials.
The US, which expects Tehran to launch retaliatory strikes on several American sites in neighbouring Iraq, has already asked some of its personnel to move away from West Asia.
President Donald Trump himself acknowledged tensions with Iran while talking to reporters at the Kennedy Center in Washington.
“Well they are being moved out because it could be a dangerous place,” Trump said.
This comes after, on Wednesday, Iran threatened to strike US military bases in the region if a conflict breaks out.
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“We’ve given notice to move out and we’ll see what happens,” Trump said.
The State Department has also ordered its non-emergency government officials to exit Iraq amid “heightened regional tensions."
Both Iran and the US are poised to hold a sixth round of talks on the country’s nuclear programme in the coming days, the CBS report added.
The Trump administration is negotiating with Iran to curb its nuclear programme, as reports indicate Tehran continues to enrich uranium close to weapons-grade levels.
The discussions are sensitive, with uncertainty about reaching an agreement. Trump insists on zero uranium enrichment by Iran, but Iranian leaders have rejected these terms, according to the president’s recent statements.
On Wednesday, Trump acknowledged that he is now “less confident” than he was two months ago about reaching a nuclear deal with Iran.
“I don’t know. I did think so, and I’m getting more and more — less confident about it. They seem to be delaying, and I think that’s a shame, but I’m less confident now than I would have been a couple of months ago. Something happened to them, but I am much less confident of a deal being made,” said Trump.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains highly distrustful of any Iran deal, given the longstanding hostility between the two nations since Iran’s 1979 revolution. Netanyahu’s office claims Israel has undertaken numerous operations, both overt and covert, to hinder Iran’s nuclear ambitions.