Trump approves Iran strike plan, eyes nuclear site Fordo while awaiting final decision
Trump considers attack on Iran’s underground Fordo site; Ali Khamenei warns U.S. against military intervention.
President Donald Trump is said to have approved a military strike plan aimed the Ali Khamenei regime in Iran, but officials say there is no decision yet on whether to go forward. The Wall Street Journal reference sources saying the administration has not decided whether Iran would give up its nuclear program before taking action.
The Fordo nuclear facility is the likely primary target of any potential U.S. operation. Affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Fordo is underground (and buried deep), heavily fortified and fortified and situated southwest of Tehran, said to operate as Enrichment Level Code 3. The action from Trump follows intensifying tensions and comes amid lingering questions about how to deter Iran.
Khamenei rebukes Trump’s demands
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei rejected what he called Trump’s call for “unconditional surrender” in a rare, televised statement. He responded after Trump warned that patience had run out for Iran and military options were being considered amid a broader Middle East crisis.
Khamenei rejected any notion of Iranian surrender, stating that the nation cannot back down. He warned Washington and its allies that if they attempted any military incursion, it would come at a cost, and delivered a very specific message to both the U.S. and Israel that Iran would not be intimidated.
Why Fordo is a key target ?
The Fordo facility, buried under approximately 80 meters of rock, presents a significant obstacle for an airstrike. It is not likely readily accessible due to its deep-buried features, which is why it has attracted the interest of U.S. and Israeli defense officials as a key strategic target.
Israeli ambassador Yechiel Leiter said that "the Fordo target must be neutralized immediately because the destruction of Fordo is essential to the destruction of Iran’s nuclear capacity." Since Fordo is only 100 km away from Tehran, the facility is at the epicenter of a developing international showdown regarding Iran’s increasingly troubling atomic development.
