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President Donald Trump said Thursday that he expects to decide within about 10 days whether to launch military action against Iran, after deploying additional naval forces to the Middle East.
“We may have to take it a step further, or we may not. Maybe we’re going to make a deal. You are going to be finding out over the next, probably, 10 days,” the president said during a meeting of the Board of Peace in Washington.
Speaking later to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump described “10, 15 days” as “pretty much [the] maximum” timeframe for making a decision.
The comments come after the administration ordered a second aircraft carrier strike group to the region. The USS Abraham Lincoln is operating in the Arabian Sea, and the USS Gerald R. Ford is traveling to the Middle East.
The Ford is expected to arrive before the end of February. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that the USS George H.W. Bush has also been told to prepare for possible deployment.
President Trump pointed to U.S. airstrikes carried out in June on three Iranian nuclear facilities, saying the action had reduced tensions in the region.
“It totally decimated the nuclear potential, and when it did, when it decimated that, all of a sudden we had peace in the Middle East, because there was a black cloud hanging over the Middle East. And if that wasn’t done, that cloud would have been there,” he said.
Some U.S.-allied Arab governments have expressed concern that further strikes could escalate instability rather than contain it.
The president warned in early January that he would consider military action if Iranian authorities violently suppressed anti-government protests. Iranian leaders responded to unrest with a crackdown that rights groups say resulted in thousands of deaths.
President Trump also met last week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House to discuss Iran, including its ballistic missile capabilities.
The president has endorsed regime change in Iran but has not identified specific alternatives to Iran’s current leadership. The administration has repositioned aircraft and other military assets in Europe and the Middle East as deliberations continue.
