Israel-Iran Conflict Continues, Trump Weighs Options

Bloomberg

6 hours ago

00:00
What are Donald Trump's options at this point? Well, Tom, ever since President Trump left that G7 summit early to focus on the geopolitical situation in the Middle East, that has been the number one question. What are his options here? What is he thinking? Can we get insight into what is going on in President Trump's mind? We know that we had this reportedly one hour meeting with his national security team in Washington. There was no statement put out afterwards. So unclear what was discussed in that meeting. He also had a call with the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. No readout of that call either. But at this point, there is a lot of focus on some of the posts that he put out on social yesterday, and not only because of the content of what he's saying, calling for Iran's unconditional surrender, suggesting that the US know exactly where the ayatollah is. But for now, he's safe. However, at least think that in with the threats if Iran don't yield to the US terms, but also using the plural term, we are suggesting that the US are somehow already involved or even tacitly participating in the Israel campaign against Iran right now. So his options at this point are do they get actively militarily engaged as well? Do they start really deploying U.S. assets and aiding actively Israel with these airstrikes and attacks on Iran? Or do they push for the diplomatic channel and try to bring even out weakened Iranian regime with weakens military and defense capabilities in addition to nuclear capabilities to the table and try to get them to agree to terms. As previously discussed, the six rounds of U.S. Iran talks were supposed to take place on Sunday. They were canceled. In the meantime, the hostilities between Iran and Israel continue. More attacks overnight at the death toll in Iran hasn't been formally updated, but some human rights groups are saying that the death toll has climbed to more than 500, of which about 100 constitute security personnel. Some of those senior commanders in Israel, the death toll official figure is still sitting at 24. Of note, though, Tom, as well, the US embassy in Jerusalem is now closed for three days. Okay. So the conflict, of course, continues. And President Trump, as you say, weighing up what could be a monumental, potentially historic decision. What have other world leaders being saying about this conflict, about this war now, Joumanna? Yeah, well, you have to remember, President Trump on both his first term and his second term, talked about ending the, quote unquote, forever wars in the Middle East. He spoke about that when he was in Saudi Arabia just a couple of weeks ago. But it's interesting to hear that some other leaders around the world are a bit more cautious, namely because they are beginning to draw parallels between the decision to attack Iraq back in 2003 and the chaos that unfolded in Libya after military intervention there. Take a listen to what President Macron said on the sidelines of the G7 summit last night. No to military actions aimed at regime change because no one knows what comes next. Haven't we collectively seen the consequences this has had in the region and beyond? Does anyone think what was done in Iraq in 2003 was a good idea? Does anyone think that what was done in Libya last decade was a good idea? No. So the international community agreeing that Iran shouldn't develop the capability of an atomic weapon or nuclear weapon, but at the same time saying that going one step further and trying to push or externally force regime change doesn't have good results. If you take other episodes in history where that has happened in the Middle East, including in this example, President Macron talk specifically about Iraq and Libya, which is why many of the countries in the region, Arab states, the likes of Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, all of them are pushing for mediation. They're pushing to restart those diplomatic channels, condemning the acts that Israel and the actions that Israel have taken only six days ago, and saying that at this point that what they did, the military aggression, actually violates the principles of the charter of the United Nations. So there is a bigger consensus of countries out there pushing for a diplomatic solution, looking to bring down the temperature and others going as far as President Macron suggesting that if you push too hard and regime change, it could have ultimately undesired consequences and potentially even lead to chaos.