Kochi: In a major move, US President Donald Trump has approved plans to attack Iran, but the final decision is still awaited, the BBC said quoting its US partner CBS.
The US president is waiting for a last minute persuasion to make Iran agree to abandon its nuclear programme, it said.
US targets Fordo, an underground uranium enrichment facility in Iran.
It may be recalled that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had rejected Trump’s demand for unconditional surrender.
Khamenei rebuked Trump in Wednesday’s recorded speech, saying that “any US military intervention” would be costly and added: “The Iranian nation will not surrender.”
Meanwhile, Israel’s military launched more attacks hitting missile sites and nuclear facilities in Iran which in turn fired hypersonic missiles with no serious damage in Israel.
Iran’s mission to the United Nations mocked Trump in posts on X: “Iran does NOT negotiate under duress, shall NOT accept peace under duress, and certainly NOT with a has-been warmonger clinging to relevance.
“No Iranian official has ever asked to grovel at the gates of the White House,” it added.
Iranians continued to jam roads out of the capital Tehran, a city of 10 million people, seeking sanctuary from Israeli attacks.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
said on Wednesday that his country’s forces were “progressing step by step” towards eliminating threats posed by Iran’s nuclear sites and ballistic missile arsenal.
He said Israel controlled the skies over Tehran.
A US carrier strike group led by the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier was moving from south-east Asia to back another strike group led by the USS Carl Vinson anchored in the Gulf.
Air assets including refuelling tankers were moving from Europe. There are reports of F-22 and F-35 strike aircraft heading towards the region.
The US State Department said Secretary of State Marco Rubio is meeting UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy in Washington DC on Thursday.
