The revelation that US President Donald Trump has given his private authorisation for the US military to attack Iran raises the alarming prospect of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran to an entirely new, and potentially disastrous, level.
Trump has spent the past few months of his presidency investing a great deal of political capital in trying to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue, with US officials participating in several rounds of talks in Oman.
And while Trump has indicated on numerous occasions that his preference is for a negotiated deal to resolve, once and for all, the long-running dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme, he has also made it clear that he has no intention of allowing Iran to acquire nuclear weapons.
Trump’s latest declaration on the subject was made earlier this week when he told reporters accompanying him on Air Force One on the return journey from the G7 summit in Canada, "Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. It's very simple — you don't have to go too deep into it. They just can't have a nuclear weapon."
Personal approval
If, as media reports in the US have suggested, Trump has now given his personal approval for the US military to draw up plans for attacking Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, it is because the US leader firmly believes that, without such action, Iran will be able to fulfil its long-held ambition of developing nuclear weapons.
The catalyst for the eruption of hostilities between Israel and Iran was the findings of a new report commissioned by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN-sponsored body responsible for monitoring Iran’s nuclear activities, which concluded that Tehran had produced sufficient quantities of enriched uranium to produce at least ten nuclear warheads.
Israel subsequently launched a series of air strikes against Iran after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Tehran was trying to produce its first nuclear warhead.
