WASHINGTON — The US military is prepared to strike Iran as early as this weekend after a significant buildup in recent days of air and naval assets in the Middle East, senior national security officials have told President Donald Trump, according to multiple US media reports.Trump has not made a final decision on military action and is discussing the matter with top advisers allies.Meanwhile, the White House is assessing risks of escalating regional tensions and the political and military implications of holding back, but the rhetoric has escalated in recent days despite the talks between Washington and Tehran in Geneva.“Should Iran decide not to make a deal, it may be necessary for the United States to use Diego Garcia, and the airfield located in Fairford, in order to eradicate a potential attack by a highly unstable and dangerous regime,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday.”(Trump) is getting fed up. Some people around him warn him against going to war with Iran, but I think there is 90% chance we see kinetic action in the next few weeks,” one Trump adviser told Axios.Any US military operation would likely be a massive, weeks-long campaign conducted jointly with Israel, sources told US media outlets, and the Trump administration was “closer than most Americans realiZe” to a major war in the Middle East.The arrival of aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford in the eastern Mediterranean in the coming days will be a key factor in determining the timing of possible strikes, according to US officials.The Pentagon will temporarily withdraw some personnel from the Middle East to US or Europe within three days ahead of possible US action and potential Iranian retaliation, CBS reported, citing US officials.Iranian and US negotiators passed notes for three-and-a-half hours Tuesday during indirect talks in Geneva, though they departed with no clear resolution. Iran’s top negotiator said both sides had agreed upon a “set of guiding principles,” though an American official said “there are still a lot of details to discuss.”Vice President JD Vance said the negotiations went well in some ways, but Trump had set red lines “that the Iranians are not yet willing to actually acknowledge and work through,” Vance told “The Story with Martha MacCallum” program.White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday that Iran was expected to provide more details on its negotiating position “in the next couple of weeks,” but she wouldn’t say whether Trump would hold off on military action within that timespan.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to travel to Israel on February 28 to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and update him on the Iran talks, a State Department official told CNN Wednesday.“I’m not going to set deadlines on behalf of the president of the United States,” Leavitt said.She added that while “diplomacy is always his first option,” military action remains on the table.”Iran would be wise to make a deal with President Trump and his administration,” she said.Following talks in Geneva, Iran’s atomic energy chief Mohammad Eslami said no country can deprive the Islamic Republic of its right to nuclear enrichment.”The basis of the nuclear industry is enrichment. Whatever you want to do in the nuclear process, you need nuclear fuel,” said Eslami, according to a video published by Etemad daily on Thursday.”Iran’s nuclear program is proceeding according to the rules of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and no country can deprive Iran of the right to peacefully benefit from this technology.”The opaque statements have fueled increasing fears of military conflict between the two nations — even as officials ostensibly hold out hope for diplomacy.The USS Gerald Ford — the most advanced carrier group in the US arsenal — could arrive in the region as soon as this weekend, after a flurry of other military buildup. US Air Force assets based in the United Kingdom, including refueling tankers and fighter jets, are being repositioned closer to the Middle East, according to sources familiar with the movements.For its part, Iran is fortifying several of its nuclear facilities, using concrete and large amounts of soil to bury key sites amid US military pressure, according to new satellite imagery and analysis from the Institute for Science and International Security. — Agencies
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