President Trump focuses on avoiding widespread conflict with Iran

As President Donald Trump weighs whether to join Israeli strikes on Iran — including using bunker-buster bombs to target nuclear facilities deep underground — a discussion is taking place among senior Trump officials about how the US could strike those targets without getting drawn into an all-out war, according to CNN, citing sources familiar with the matter.

For President Trump, trying to avoid a prolonged Israeli-Iranian conflict has become a top priority. While he has embraced arguments, including from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that only the United States can fully end Iran’s nuclear ambitions, he remains wary of getting bogged down in another foreign conflict, which he has pledged to avoid.

Two European diplomats told CNN that some US allies received information over the weekend that the Trump administration was planning to wait to see what Israel achieved in the first week of its campaign against Iran's nuclear program before deciding whether to intervene militarily.

Before that deadline, President Trump said he had not made a final decision on how to proceed, and in conversations with U.S. allies on June 18, U.S. officials were uncertain whether to lean one way or the other, diplomats said.

A source familiar with the matter told CNN that President Trump has considered plans to attack Iran, but is holding off to see if Tehran will abandon its nuclear program.

“I like to make a final decision a second before it’s due,” President Trump said in the Oval Office. “Especially with war, things change with war. It can go from one extreme to the other.”

As the US leader weighs his options, he has said he does not believe a US strike would necessarily involve military intervention, while those close to Mr Trump have argued that decisive strikes are different from prolonging the conflict.

“The US could drop a few MOABs on Fordow, destroy the last nuclear asset, and leave,” David Friedman, President Trump’s ambassador to Israel during his first term, wrote on social media. MOAB refers to a Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, nicknamed “the mother of all bombs.”

While President Trump has kept his options open, the administration continues to listen to allies urging opposition to offensive U.S. intervention. Reasons include the possibility that Iran could attempt to block the Strait of Hormuz, potentially disrupting global oil flows, and Iran’s potential choice to race toward nuclear weapons after any U.S. attack.

Iran has vowed to retaliate if US forces join Israel in the attack.