Report: President Trump Considered Iran Strike Before Leaving White House

US President Donald Trump asked his senior advisers last week whether he could launch a strike against Iran’s main nuclear site prior to leaving the White House in January. The advisers convinced him to abandon the idea, saying it could escalate into a more serious conflict. The question came Thursday during an Oval Office meeting, a day after international nuclear inspectors reported that Iran’s stockpile of uranium had grown significantly, The New York Times reported, citing unnamed current and former US officials. President Trump in May 2018 pulled the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal, which traded a rollback of economic sanctions for a reduction of Iran’s nuclear stockpile. Since then, Iran has resumed its production of enriched uranium and increased its stockpile well above the limits set by the nuclear deal. Sources told The Times that the outgoing US president might still look at ways to strike Iranian assets and allies outside of its borders, including Iranian-backed militias in Iraq. The International Atomic Energy Agency has concluded that Iran now has enough low-enriched uranium to produce two nuclear weapons, which could be available as early as late spring.