Trump okayed Iran attack plans but withheld final approval: Reports

US President Donald Trump approved attack plans on Iran but held off giving the final order to strike the country and join Israel, according to US media reports. The decision to hold the strike was made to see if Tehran would abandon its nuclear program, the reports claimed.

After his early return from the G7 Summit in Canada on Tuesday, Trump told his senior aides that he had approved the Iran attack plan but had not given the final order.

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After his emergency meeting at the White House Situation Room, Trump publicly said that joining Israel is an option.

Earlier on Wednesday, the US president said that only he knows what he will do, keeping his Iran attack plan close to his chest.

“I may do it (US attack on Iran), I may not do it,” Trump told reporters at the White House, adding, “nobody knows what I’m going to do.”

The president, however, added that it was “too late” for Iran to abandon its nuclear program. He claimed that Iran was planning to send its officials to the White House to discuss their nuclear program, but it was “very late”.

“I said it’s very late to be talking. We may meet. There’s a big difference between now and a week ago, right? Big difference,” he told the reporters, reiterating his “unconditional surrender” demand.

US President Trump has clearly stated that Washington will not allow Tehran to have nuclear weapons. He threatened the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, claiming that the US knows exactly where he is hiding and that he is an easy target.

However, he added that the Iranian Supreme Leader is “safe for now”, demanding an “unconditional surrender”.

Responding to Trump’s threat, Khamenei said that Iran will not surrender and that the US will suffer the consequences if the country intervened militarily.

“If America intervenes militarily in this field, then it is certain that the losses it will suffer will not be compensated,” he has said.