WASHINGTON — President Trump previewed upcoming military strikes on Iran during a Friday cabinet meeting at Camp David following reports he has a range of options at his disposal — including a two-week campaign to target Tehran’s remaining missile capabilities.
“We’re in for five months, and we have obliterated their military capacity,” he said of the Iran war. “Again, they’ve got some left, but soon they won’t have some left.”
Trump added that the Iranian regime had “been very dishonest” and “very dishonorable to deal with” throughout attempts at negotiations to end the conflict.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) has prepared a large-scale operation in the form of a decisive two-week bombing campaign should Trump choose escalation to break the deadlock in the Middle East, two sources confirmed to The Post on Friday.
A senior administration official told the Wall Street Journal — which first reported the option to “go big” on Wednesday — that Trump “is in an escalatory mood” but still considering “the depth of that response.”
Tehran has repeatedly used missiles to target US forces and regional allies in recent weeks.
Rather than yet another series of limited strikes, the proposal envisions 10 to 14 days of sustained attacks that would eliminate the need to preserve the dwindling US stockpile of defensive missiles.
The campaign, drafted by CENTCOM head Adm. Brad Cooper, is not the only option before the president, but it would be the most significant military endeavor the US has taken on since the initial April 8 cease-fire that ended the first phase of the war, the sources said.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine has reportedly taken a more cautious approach, warning the White House that an expanded campaign would further strain US stocks of air-defense interceptors needed to protect American forces and allies around the world, according to the Journal.
Trump took a determined stance on the possibility of escalation following an attempted surprise attack by Iran on US forces earlier this week, telling Fox News on Wednesday that “we’re going to beat the f—ing sh—out of them.”
“We’ll be hitting them hard,” he said.
Later that day, the US launched strikes against dozens of targets tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including command centers and missile and drone facilities, calling the operation a “powerful response” to Tehran.
Still, Trump signaled he has not yet closed the door on diplomacy, telling Fox that “we’re going to let them keep talking.”
But recent negotiations have been fruitless, with even mediators growing frustrated at the lack of progress, according to a source familiar with internal discussions.
“[Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas] Araghchi and [Iran Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher] Qalibaf are on one side, the IRGC is on the other,” explained this source, saying that Tehran’s negotiators are on a “completely different page” than the war-hungry IRGC.
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