As Trump pressures Iran with "massive armada," Mideast allies urge him not to strike
As the Trump administration continues to prepare military options for strikes in Iran, U.S. allies in the Mideast, including Turkey, Oman and Qatar, are attempting to head off that possibility by brokering diplomatic talks, multiple regional officials told CBS News.
But at this point, the opportunity for direct diplomacy between the U.S. and Iran to discuss the regime's nuclear program and ballistic missile capacity has not gained traction, according to three regional officials who spoke with CBS News on condition of anonymity so they could speak freely.
Israeli military intelligence chief General Shlomi Binder was in Washington earlier this week for meetings at the Pentagon, CIA and White House, a source familiar with his plans told CBS News. Axios was first to confirm the Israeli visit — which had not been announced by the Trump administration. Separately, the Saudi Defense Minister is scheduled to be in Washington, D.C., this week for meetings, according to a source familiar with his schedule.
In Iran, thousands of protesters are thought to have been killed, with many more detained, as Iranian authorities have led a brutal crackdown on recent demonstrations sparked by economic hardship and political repression. A near-complete shutdown of internet and communications has now lasted for over two weeks, with only small numbers of Iranians recently managing to connect.
In a social media post on Wednesday, President Trump said a "massive armada" was heading towards Iran, urging its government to "come to the table." Iranian foreign minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said in a post soon thereafter that Iran's security forces " are prepared—with their fingers on the trigger—to immediately and powerfully respond to ANY aggression against our beloved land, air, and sea."
But some of the regional allies like Saudi Arabia and the UAE have explicitly made it known that their airspace and territory cannot be used to launch strikes on the Islamic Republic. According to a readout of a call Wednesday between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, the Saudi leader said he had explicitly forbidden "any party" from using the Kingdom to strike Iran. Similarly, the UAE vowed not to let its waters, airspace or territory be used, and said it would not provide logistical support for an attack on Iran.
Recent U.S. intelligence assessments indicate that the Iranian government is in its weakest position in decades—its most vulnerable since the 1979 revolution that brought the previously exiled Ayatollah Khomeini back to Iran on Feb. 1.
The Iranian foreign minister is scheduled to be in Turkey Friday for diplomatic meetings. Iran is skeptical of diplomatic gestures and doubts the U.S. offers are genuine according to multiple diplomatic officials in the region. That skepticism is based in part on what happened last June when the Trump administration decided to join Israel's bombing campaign targeting Iranian nuclear infrastructure, even though diplomatic talks were scheduled.
Over the past few weeks President Trump has ordered a buildup of military forces in the Middle East. An additional destroyer and the Lincoln Carrier Strike Group arrived in the region this week. The carrier strike group brings USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, with its squadrons of fighter jets and three escort destroyers. This deployment joins the two destroyers and three littoral combat ships that were already in the area, which is under U.S. Central Command.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly dangled the potential of a U.S. strike on Iran, but currently, it appears unclear what the targets would be or whether the focus would be the type of decapitation strikes used to assist a regime change.
While the president had initially publicly threatened military action to dissuade the regime from continuing its brutal crackdown, the protests have dramatically reduced without that action. The Trump administration is seeking a diplomatic deal that would instead address Iran's nuclear program and ballistic missile capacity.
In testimony Wednesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was unable to answer questions about who would take over if Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the regime were to fall. He said there would be a "hope that there would be some ability to have somebody within their systems" who could work constructively toward a transition.
Rubio described Iran's regime as "weaker than it has ever been" with its economy "in collapse." But he downplayed the likelihood that the regime could be overthrown as a result of the recent wave of popular protests across the country.
He suggested that Iranian authorities may have brought the country under control with its brutal crackdown on demonstrators.
"I think regimes, including that one in Iran, have learned that when you start shooting people in the head with snipers, it's effective," Rubio said.
Earlier this month, a source inside Iran told CBS News that activist groups believed that the death toll reached at least 12,000, and possibly as high as 20,000, based on reports from medical officials across Iran. CBS News has not been able to independently verify these figures.
Rubio told Congress that the U.S. currently has 30,000 to 40,000 American troops stationed across eight or nine facilities in the Middle East. He characterized the U.S. military buildup as defensive in nature, noting that all those U.S. facilities are at risk of an Iranian strike using a short-term ballistic missile or a one-way UAV or drone.