Today So Far
As the world awaits Donald Trump’s decision on whether the United States will enter the Israel-Iran conflict by lending military support to Israel or push for negotiations between the two countries, here are the headlines we’ve been following today so far.
- Donald Trump posted on social media that the United States knows the location of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He added that the US would not kill Khamenei “for now” but called for Iran’s “unconditional surrender”. In an apparent response to the president’s post, senator Bernie Sanders said the president “must not take illegal military action against Iran”. Yesterday, Democratic senator Tim Kaine introduced a war powers resolution that would prohibit US armed forces from taking direct action against Iran without explicit authorization from Congress or a declaration of war. Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said that Iran’s supreme leader could face the same fate as Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, who was toppled in a US-led invasion and was eventually hanged after a trial.
- Following a Situation Room briefing with members of his national security team, Trump is evaluating whether to lend his support to Israel by targeting Iranian nuclear facilities. Iran’s Fordow nuclear facility is located beneath a mountain that will be difficult for Israeli forces to penetrate without the assistance of the United States, which is the only country that possesses bombs that can break through the underground bunker.
- In a lengthy post on social media, JD Vance responded to concerns from longtime members of Donald Trump’s far-right Make America Great Again coalition about US involvement in foreign wars. Later, he met with Republican senators at a private lunch where North Dakota senator Kevin Cramer said the message was: Trump “remains committed to Iran not having a nuclear capability,” and “would rather negotiate than drop bombs”.
- The State Department has established a task force to assist US citizens and permanent residents trying to leave the Middle East as hostilities continue between Israel and Iran. A task force operated by the Bureau of Consular Affairs is operating 24 hours a day, however the United States is not planning any evacuation flights.
- World leaders, including Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and French president Emmanuel Macron, reacted to the unfolding conflict. In a phone call with the Emir of Qatar, Erdogan called Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu the “greatest threat to the region’s security”. Later, speaking on the sidelines of the G7, Macron cautioned that “the biggest error would be to use military strikes to change the regime because it would then be chaos”.
- US intelligence assessments have found Iran was not actively pursuing a nuclear weapon and would have been up to three years away from being able to deliver one, CNN is reporting. The assessments, sourced to four people familiar with them, are in stark contrast to the narrative being pushed by Israel that Iran was fast approaching a point of n
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