Trump Sought Options for Attacking Iran to Stop Its Growing Nuclear Program

WASHINGTON — President Trump requested senior advisers in an Oval Workplace assembly on Thursday whether or not he had choices to take motion in opposition to Iran’s predominant nuclear website within the coming weeks. The assembly occurred a day after worldwide inspectors reported a big enhance within the nation’s stockpile of nuclear materials, 4 present and former U.S. officers mentioned on Monday.

A variety of senior advisers dissuaded the president from shifting forward with a navy strike. The advisers — together with Vice President Mike Pence; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; Christopher C. Miller, the appearing protection secretary; and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Workers — warned strike in opposition to Iran’s amenities may simply escalate right into a broader battle within the final weeks of Mr. Trump’s presidency.

Any strike — whether or not by missile or cyber — would virtually actually be targeted on Natanz, the place the Worldwide Atomic Power Company reported on Wednesday that Iran’s uranium stockpile was now 12 instances bigger than permitted below the nuclear accord that Mr. Trump abandoned in 2018. The company additionally famous that Iran had not allowed it entry to a different suspected website the place there was proof of previous nuclear exercise.

Mr. Trump requested his high nationwide safety aides what choices had been obtainable and the best way to reply, officers mentioned.

After Mr. Pompeo and Basic Milley described the potential dangers of navy escalation, officers left the assembly believing a missile assault inside Iran was off the desk, based on administration officers with data of the assembly.

Mr. Trump may nonetheless be taking a look at methods to strike Iranian belongings and allies, together with militias in Iraq, officers mentioned. A smaller group of nationwide safety aides had met late Wednesday to debate Iran, the day earlier than the assembly with the president.

White Home officers didn’t reply to requests for remark.

The episode underscored how Mr. Trump nonetheless faces an array of world threats in his last weeks in workplace. A strike on Iran might not play nicely to his base, which is essentially against a deeper American battle within the Center East, but it surely may poison relations with Tehran in order that it might be a lot tougher for President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear accord, as he has promised to do.

Since Mr. Trump dismissed Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper and different high Pentagon aides final week, Protection Division and different nationwide safety officers have privately expressed worries that the president may provoke operations, whether or not overt or secret, in opposition to Iran or different adversaries on the finish of his time period.

The occasions of the previous few days usually are not the primary time that Iran coverage has emerged within the last days of an outgoing administration. Over the past days of the Bush administration in 2008, Israeli officers, involved that the incoming Obama administration would search to dam it from placing Iran’s nuclear amenities, sought bunker-busting bombs, bombers and intelligence assistance from the United States for an Israeli-led strike.

Vice President Dick Cheney later wrote in his memoir that he supported the thought. President George W. Bush didn’t, however the consequence was a far nearer collaboration with Israel on a cyberstrike in opposition to the Natanz facility, which took out about 1,000 of Iran’s nuclear centrifuges.

Ever since, the Pentagon has revised its strike plans a number of instances. It now has conventional navy in addition to cyberoptions, and a few that mix the 2. Some contain direct motion by Israel.

The report from the International Atomic Energy Agency concluded that Iran now had a stockpile of greater than 2,442 kilograms, or over 5,385 kilos, of low-enriched uranium. That is sufficient to produce about two nuclear weapons, based on an evaluation of the report by the Institute for Science and Worldwide Safety. However it might require a number of months of extra processing to counterpoint the uranium to bomb-grade materials, that means that Iran wouldn’t be near a bomb till late spring on the earliest — nicely after Mr. Trump would have left workplace.

Whereas the quantity is regarding, it’s far under the quantity of gasoline Iran possessed earlier than President Obama reached a nuclear accord with Tehran in July 2015. Late that 12 months, below the phrases of the accord, Iran shipped about 97 % of its gasoline stockpile to Russia — about 25,000 kilos — leaving it with lower than it might must construct a single weapon.

The Iranians caught to these limits even after Mr. Trump scrapped U.S. participation within the Iran accord in 2018 and reimposed sanctions. The Iranians started to slowly edge out of these limits final 12 months, declaring that if Mr. Trump felt free to violate its phrases, they’d not proceed to abide by them.

However the Iranians have hardly raced to provide new materials: Their advances have been gradual and regular, and so they have denied looking for to construct a weapon — although proof stolen from the nation a number of years in the past by Israel made clear that was the plan earlier than 2003.

Mr. Trump has argued because the 2016 marketing campaign that Iran was hiding a few of its actions and dishonest on its commitments; the inspectors’ report final week gave him the primary partial proof to assist that view. The report criticized Iran for not answering a sequence of questions on a warehouse in Tehran the place inspectors discovered uranium particles, resulting in suspicion that it had as soon as been some type of nuclear-processing facility. The report mentioned Iran’s solutions had been “not technically credible.”

The Worldwide Atomic Power Company has beforehand complained that inspectors have been barred from absolutely reviewing some suspected websites.

It’s not simply the U.S. navy that’s taking a look at choices. Mr. Pompeo, officers mentioned, is intently watching occasions unfolding on the bottom in Iraq for any trace of aggression from Iran or its proxy militias in opposition to American diplomats or troops stationed there.

Mr. Pompeo already drew up plans to close the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad over considerations of potential threats, though in latest days he appeared prepared to go away that call to the subsequent administration. Mortar and rocket assaults in opposition to the embassy have waned over the previous a number of weeks, and the duty to shutter the biggest American diplomatic mission on the earth may take months to finish.

However officers mentioned that might change if any Individuals are killed earlier than Inauguration Day.

Officers are particularly nervous concerning the Jan. three anniversary of the U.S. strike that killed Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, the commander of Iran’s elite Quds Power of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, and the Iraqi chief of an Iranian-backed militia — deaths that Iranian leaders commonly insist they haven’t but avenged.

Mr. Pompeo, who has been essentially the most strident proponent amongst Mr. Trump’s advisers of hobbling Iran whereas the administration nonetheless can, has extra not too long ago made clear that the demise of an American was a purple line that might provoke a navy response.

That will additionally enhance tensions between Washington and Baghdad. Diplomats mentioned Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi of Iraq would virtually actually object to the killing of Iraqis — even Iranian-backed militiamen — on Iraqi soil by U.S. forces who already face demands to leave.