President Donald Trump said Tuesday during a meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun at the White House that Iran cannot obtain nuclear weapons and that the US will attack new Iranian nuclear sites, specifically Mount Makosh, with force, according to Israeli journalists Doron Kadush and Yair Goldblatt.
President Donald Trump escalated his threats against Iran's nuclear program during a White House meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Tuesday evening, specifically naming the Mount Makosh facility as a target for US strikes. According to Israeli journalists Doron Kadush and Yair Goldblatt, Trump told Aoun: 'Iran cannot reach nuclear weapons — we will attack the new sites (Mount Makosh). Any site that is nuclear — will be hit with force.' The statement adds a diplomatic dimension to a rapid sequence of escalating threats that began just minutes earlier.
At 18:34 Jerusalem, The Zioneer reported that Trump said the US would 'without a doubt' strike Mount Makosh (version 1). Moments later, at the same timestamp, he expanded the threat to 'every new site' at the facility (version 2), and then — also at 18:34 — to 'any site where they even think about nuclear weapons' (version 3), as reported by Amichai Stein (i24NEWS). The three earlier statements were reported within a two-minute span; the Aoun meeting statement followed shortly after, cited by two additional journalists. The corroboration base thus widened from one Israeli reporter to multiple sources within the same hour.
As The Zioneer reported previously, Trump has been threatening the Mount Makosh site for days. On Tuesday at 02:47 Jerusalem, he warned that the US would 'reach the site' and told Iran to prepare. On June 16, 13:31 Jerusalem, he threatened 'all hell will rain down' on Iran if it obtains nuclear weapons. On July 13, 23:33 Jerusalem, he called the site a possible target for a 'big, fat and beautiful attack.' A Zioneer analysis published July 14, 00:01 Jerusalem assessed that only a tactical nuclear weapon or a ground operation could destroy the deep underground facility, but deemed the US unlikely to use nuclear means.
It remains unclear whether Trump's remarks to Aoun were made during the same meeting or in a separate interaction. The exact timing of the statement relative to the earlier three threats is not fully specified. The quotes remain attributed to journalists, not to an official White House transcript.
7 developments
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Source and signal
- Internal intake