U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explored all paths to curb Iran’s nuclear project in their meeting, including diplomacy, economic pressure and force, a senior Israeli official said on Wednesday.
Netanyahu did not tell Trump that Israel’s preference was for an attack on Iran, the official said in a briefing with reporters after the two men met in the White House on Tuesday.
“In the end, it’s his decision,” the official said of Trump. Trump has three options and all three were discussed at length, the official said: “A deal, continuing the blockade and economic pressures, and a massive strike.”
The official said that there were signs Iran’s clerical rulers have been rattled by rising inflation and public frustration but that the impact on the global economy and oil markets was also a consideration.
Oil prices shot up on Wednesday in one of the sharpest spikes since the war began on February 28, with a joint Israeli-U.S. aerial bombing campaign in Iran. Tehran responded with strikes on Israel and Gulf states.
Israel had not taken part in the latest two-week U.S. bombing campaign this month that provoked Tehran to fire on U.S. bases in response, but it has warned Tehran that it would respond forcefully if attacked.
On Wednesday, the United States and Saudi Arabia struck Iran-backed paramilitary groups in Iraq, and Trump vowed to “beat the fucking shit” out of Iran for firing on U.S. troops days after he halted air strikes.
Iran confirmed overnight that it had fired on U.S. bases in Jordan and at ships in the Strait of Hormuz, and also spurned an Omani proposal to jointly manage the strait.
(Writing by by Maayan Lubell Editing by Bill Berkrot)