President Trump Threatens Massive Attack on Iran as Israel Opens Shelters
By The Media Line Staff
President Donald Trump said he is considering launching what he described as the largest US attack yet against Iran, while several Israeli municipalities opened public bomb shelters ahead of the weekend over concerns about a possible Iranian missile response.
“I am considering a massive attack. Bigger than ever before. I am close to making a decision. We are all set for it,” Trump told Axios.
President Trump said Israel “would join in two minutes if I ask them to,” but emphasized that the United States would not need Israeli or allied assistance to carry out such an operation. He also warned that Israeli involvement would carry “consequences,” apparently referring to the possibility of Iranian missile attacks against Israel in retaliation.
The president did not set a timetable for a decision. Two US officials said no final decision had been made and no new military orders had been issued. President Trump also said Tehran is interested in negotiations but has not reached the point of accepting an agreement. “They haven’t received enough pain yet,” he said.
Two regional officials familiar with mediation efforts said Iran’s leadership has not accepted the latest US proposal.
“We are trying, but the Iranians are not being helpful,” one of the officials said.
The comments came after 12 days of escalating US attacks intended to halt Iranian assaults on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
In Israel, the municipalities of Ramat Gan, Eilat and Karmiel announced Thursday that they had opened all public bomb shelters after local assessments concluded the risk of Iranian missile fire over the weekend had increased and could no longer be considered negligible.
“We decided to open all the shelters in the city,” Ramat Gan Mayor Carmel Shama-Hacohen said in a social media post.
“A situation assessment found that the risk of missile fire from Iran over the weekend has increased and is no longer negligible,” he said. “Despite the cost of opening them, it is right to exercise extra caution, and hopefully this opening will prove unnecessary.”
Shama-Hacohen also called on residential building committees to ensure shared shelters were ready for use.
“I call on all building committees to ready the shared shelters,” he wrote.
Later Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces said it had not received any directive to open public shelters and that there had been no changes to Home Front Command guidelines or policy.
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