The United States is preparing for the possibility of a prolonged military operation against Iran if President Donald Trump authorises a strike, according to officials familiar with the matter. The planning comes as Washington has ordered a second aircraft carrier to the region, signalling an escalation in posture amid mounting tensions.
A Reuters report, citing two US officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, said any action against Iran would likely extend beyond a single, limited strike and could continue for several weeks.
President Trump has also intensified his rhetoric toward Tehran. Speaking to reporters during a visit to Fort Bragg in North Carolina, he indicated that a change in Iran’s leadership could be desirable. “Seems like that would be the best thing that could happen,” he said when asked about regime change.
Expressing frustration over decades of diplomatic efforts, Trump added, “For 47 years, they’ve been talking and talking and talking. In the meantime, we’ve lost a lot of lives while they talk.”
The US military presence in the Persian Gulf has expanded significantly, coinciding with stalled diplomatic engagement. Although Washington and Tehran held indirect discussions last week on the future of Iran’s nuclear programme, the President has issued a blunt warning. He said Iran would face “very traumatic consequences” if it failed to agree to a new nuclear deal on terms acceptable to the United States.
“We have to make a deal, otherwise it’s going to be very traumatic, very traumatic. I don’t want that to happen, but we have to make a deal,” Trump said on Wednesday.
The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, deployed late last month following Tehran’s crackdown on domestic protests, is being reinforced. The USS Gerald R. Ford — the Navy’s newest and most advanced carrier — has been redirected from its Caribbean deployment to join the growing US naval presence in the Middle East.
