NEW YORK, December 13. /TASS/. US President-elect Donald Trump is weighing options for preventing Iran from building nuclear weapons, including the possibility of preventive airstrikes, the Wall Street Journal reports.
According to the newspaper’s sources, Trump’s transition team is working on a new "maximum pressure" strategy against Tehran, which would include military steps and tighter financial penalties.
The paper points out that earlier, Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he was concerned about "an Iranian nuclear breakout on his watch, <...> signaling he is looking for proposals to prevent that outcome."
According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump’s team is discussing two options. The first one "involves augmenting military pressure by sending more US forces, warplanes, and ships to the Middle East." "The US could also sell advanced weapons to Israel, such as bunker-busting bombs," the paper notes.
"The alternative path is to seek to use the threat of military force, especially if paired with US-imposed sanctions, to drive Tehran into accepting a diplomatic resolution," the Wall Street Journal writes.
Trupp said earlier in an interview with Time magazine that he did not rule out a major military clash between the US and Iran.
Trump won the US presidential election on November 5. During his first term in office, he adopted a policy of maximum pressure on Iran, imposing tough sanctions on the country, withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 and enhancing military, political and economic support for Israel. Meanwhile, the Iranian authorities suggest that the US president-elect should abandon the idea of putting maximum pressure on Tehran. Otherwise, Washington will have to face "maximum resistance" from Iran, the country’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi said.