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The United States moves B-2 stealth bombers in the Pacific, while President Donald Trump examines if Washington will join the War of Israel against Iran.
According to Flight Trackers and a person familiar with their deployment, several B-2 bombers seemed to travel from Missouri to the American base on Guam in the Pacific early Saturday.
It was not clear if the movements were a sign that the United States was preparing for a potential strike on Iran. The person warned that it was not uncommon to reposition military resources to be ready for possible deployment.
Bombers are also sometimes sent to specific areas to provide additional deterrence by reminding countries of the scope of the US Air Force.
The Pentagon referred questions to the White House, which did not answer requests for comments.
The American “bunker-buckword” bombs carried by B-2 furtive bombers are deemed to have the best chance of destroying the jewel of the crown of the nuclear program of the Islamic Republic, the sprawling uranium enrichment center built deeply under a mountain in Ford.
Israel, which has sought to eliminate the Iranian nuclear infrastructure since its surprise attack on the country on June 13, is considered neither bombs nor the plane to destroy Fordow, it would therefore probably be necessary to rely on assistance in the United States to do so.
The White House said Thursday that Trump would decide “in the next two weeks” if the United States took Iran, a decision that would mark a significant escalation in the conflict.
The State Department began evacuation flights for American citizens and legal permanent residents of Israel, the American ambassador in Israel Mike Huckabee said on Saturday. The United States began to evacuate diplomats from the country on Wednesday. Huckabee said this week that the United States government was also looking for cruise ships to help Americans leave Israel.
The American president is expected to hold a national security meeting at the White House on Saturday.
On Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned that it would be “very, very dangerous for everyone” if the United States had to join the conflict.
“Unfortunately, we have heard that the United States could join this assault,” Araghchi told journalists. “It would be very unhappy.”
The almost complete domination of Israel over the Iranian sky has seriously reduced the launching capacities of missiles from the Islamic Republic and eliminated a large part of its senior military leaders since the start of the conflict earlier this month.
The supreme chief, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was rarely seen in public since the Israeli Defense Minister said that he too could be murdered.
The success of the Israeli army has left Trump reluctant to accept an Iranian demand that talks take place under the cover of a ceasefire.
“It is very difficult to stop when you look at him, Israel is doing well in terms of war and I think you would say that Iran is doing less well,” said Trump on Friday, describing the first cycle of negotiations led by Europe in Geneva as ineffective. “Europe will not be able to help you.” The United States has not attended talks.
A person informed Friday negotiations said that French, German, German and British foreign ministers have warned their Iranian counterpart that Tehran may have to abandon his red line refusing to negotiate with Washington while it was under Israeli attack to “prevent the United States from joining the operation”.
“We have returned them to think very carefully about their red line,” said the person. “We said [the Iranians] that American military intervention is something that is really planned at the moment. »»
French president Emmanuel Macron said he had been in contact with Masoud Pezeshkian, his Iranian counterpart, and had planned to accelerate the negotiations led by Europe.
“Here again, my position is clear: Iran should never acquire nuclear weapons, and it is up to Iran to provide complete guarantees that its intentions are peaceful,” he wrote on X on Saturday.
Trump rejected the evaluation of the American intelligence community that Iran did not use the enrichment capacity of Ford uranium to build equipment for a nuclear weapon. Instead, he agreed with Netanyahu’s claims that Tehran was a few weeks before the construction of a bomb.
“She is wrong,” Trump told journalists when he was asked about the testimony of national intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard at the Congress this year, which contradicted Netanyahu’s insistence that Iran was building a bomb.
Gabbard said in March that the American intelligence community thought that Iran did not build a nuclear weapon and that Khamenei had not revived the program he suspended in 2003.
But late Friday evening, Gabbard wrote on X that if Iran decided to finalize the assembly of a bomb, it could “produce a nuclear weapon in weeks in months”.
Earlier on Saturday, Israel struck the Iranian nuclear installation near Isfahan. According to the Iranian news agency Fars, the actions seem to have struck certain parts of the nuclear installation, but there was no sign of radiation leak.
Iran also launched a small volley of missiles and drones on Saturday. All except one were intercepted, said the Israeli army, with a drone damaging a house in northern Israel.
Additional Andrew England reports in London
