President Trump held recent discussions with Defense Secretary Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Caine about resuming full-scale military strikes on Iran to 'finish the job,' but decided to stick with the diplomatic track and precision strikes for now, according to US officials cited by the Wall Street Journal. Trump told aides another full-scale round could hurt the chances of dismantling Iran's nuclear program.
President Donald Trump considered abandoning nuclear negotiations with Iran and resuming full-scale military strikes, but ultimately decided to continue the diplomatic track and precision strikes for now, according to a Wall Street Journal report cited by Israeli media Wednesday.
Trump held discussions in recent days with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine about a return to all-out war, with some officials describing the option as "finishing the job," the report said. However, Trump told aides he believes another full-scale round could undermine Washington's ability to ultimately dismantle Iran's nuclear program.
While no final decision has been made, Trump expressed comfort with the talks extending beyond the August 18 deadline (60 days) and said he is currently satisfied with the policy of precision strikes whenever Iran violates the memorandum of understanding. Administration sources acknowledged that resuming full-scale hostilities would effectively be an admission that the Iran framework had failed.
As The Zioneer reported at 03:42 Jerusalem, the WSJ described Trump as having weighed this escalation but preferring diplomacy for now — a thread consistent with earlier reports of the administration weighing a short-duration campaign to break the deadlock.
11 developments
- StrongDefense Minister Katz speaks with US counterpart Hegseth
- DevelopingTrump says he held phone conversations with Iranian officials
- StrongTrump expected to meet Pentagon, defense industry leaders Wednesday on post-Iran-war arms production
- DevelopingTrump reportedly agrees to private meeting with Khamenei at Iran's request
Source and signal
- Internal intake