Trump’s objectives in Iran are unclear ahead of talks, sources say

WASHINGTON — Senior Trump administration officials still have no clear guidance on what President Donald Trump hopes to accomplish with military action in Iran as U.S. and Iranian officials plan to meet Friday to try to avoid war, according to two U.S. officials.

While Trump has left open the possibility of pursuing regime change in Iran, the two U.S. officials said he has not yet defined precisely what his goals would be for possible military action. They also said there was no clear road map or consensus within the administration on what role the United States would play after such an operation.

Asked in an interview with NBC News on Wednesday whether Iran’s supreme leader should be worried, Trump responded: “I would say he should be very worried, yes. He should be.”

Trump told NBC News’ Tom Llamas that he learned Iran may be trying to reconstitute its nuclear program after the U.S. military “wiped out” three of its nuclear sites in June.

“They were looking at setting up a new location in another part of the country,” Trump said. “We found out. I said, ‘If you do that, we’re going to do really bad things to you.'”

Trump has not publicly outlined his specific objective in Iran, including whether he seeks to overthrow the mullahs’ regime, weaken it or force it to accept restrictions on its nuclear and missile programs.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that negotiations between U.S. and Iranian officials, scheduled to take place Friday in Oman, must include curtailing not only Iran’s nuclear program but also the range of its ballistic missiles, as well as its support for proxies in the region and “treatment of their own people.”

“I’m not sure you can come to an agreement with these guys, but we’re going to try to find out,” Rubio told reporters. “We see no harm in trying to understand that there is something that can be done. This is a president who always prefers a peaceful outcome to any conflict or challenge when the time comes.”

Asked about Trump continuing negotiations with Iran while he is still considering military options, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement: “The commander in chief has many options to address these issues – and it is wise not to spread them in fake news.” »

Iran has consistently ruled out any negotiations beyond its nuclear program, which it has insisted is for peaceful purposes, and it has rejected the idea of ​​restrictions on its ballistic missile arsenal or its support for its ideological allies in the region.

Trump, who withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran during his first term, has shifted his rhetoric toward the country’s leaders in recent weeks. He threatened military action to honor his promise to help protesters in Iran who have suffered a bloody crackdown at the hands of the regime.

He then announced that Iran had agreed to end the crackdown, which has killed more than 6,000 protesters, as well as the planned executions of those arrested, and would therefore not take military action. And now he is continuing negotiations with Iran. He demands that Iran agree to scale back its nuclear program or face military action, although he said U.S. strikes in June “wiped out” three of its nuclear sites.

It is unclear what exactly Trump is seeking to negotiate with the Iranians, which would aim to support the protesters.

Trump’s latest recalibration toward Iran has raised questions about what he would seek to achieve with military action if talks fail, such as targeting nuclear and missile sites or a larger-scale, higher-risk attack designed to topple the regime.

The U.S. military continues to send aircraft and land-based air defense systems to the Middle East as the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and its ships move closer to Tehran, U.S. officials said. But for now, U.S. officials insist the influx of resources is a response to ongoing tensions in the region and not part of planning for a specific mission.

The US military threat, including the possibility of removing Iran’s top political and military leaders, serves as leverage for now while Trump continues diplomatic negotiations. Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to lead the U.S. meeting with Iranian officials on Friday, according to three U.S. officials.

Friday’s diplomatic meeting was initially scheduled to take place in Istanbul and bring together representatives from major Persian Gulf countries, including Qatar and Oman, as well as U.S. and Iranian officials.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced on X on Wednesday: “Nuclear negotiations with the United States are expected to take place on Friday in Muscat at 10 a.m. » He made no mention of Rubio’s other demands: discussing Iran’s ballistic missile program, its support for proxies and its treatment of the Iranian people.

A U.S. official and an Omani official confirmed the meeting was set for Friday.

Trump said Tuesday that he believed the Iranians were seeking to avoid a repeat of June’s 12-day war, when the Defense Department struck three Iranian nuclear enrichment sites in what he called “Operation Midnight Hammer.”

“I don’t think they want to see this happen again, but they would like to negotiate,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “We are currently in negotiations with them.”

NBC News reported in December that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was pushing the administration to support strikes against Iranian ballistic missile sites.

As the Iranian regime’s crackdown on protesters turned deadly weeks later, Trump said he would consider military action against the regime. Then he abruptly announced that he was satisfied that the repression had eased, leaving open the question of whether he would take military action.

Since then, Gulf states and even Israel have discouraged Trump from taking military action, NBC News reported last month.

Last week, a senior Gulf state official said Saudi Arabia would not allow the United States to use its airspace or bases for an attack in Iran and that the United States had not yet shared any goals or plans with its Gulf allies.

Rubio indicated at a Senate hearing late last month that the administration was not necessarily aiming to overthrow the Iranian mullahs’ regime, saying it was unclear what would happen if the current leaders were ousted and that the situation was more complicated than in Venezuela.

“It’s an open question. I mean, no one knows who will take over,” Rubio told the panel when asked who might lead Iran if the regime falls.

Tensions between the United States and Iran have flared in the region ahead of the expected next round of negotiations.

U.S. forces on Tuesday shot down an Iranian drone that was flying “aggressively” toward the Abraham Lincoln, which recently arrived in the region as part of Trump’s buildup of U.S. military forces and weapons in anticipation of possible military action in Iran, according to U.S. Central Command. A US military official described the Shahed-139 drone as having “unclear intent” as it approached the aircraft carrier about 500 miles off the coast of Iran.

In another incident Tuesday in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps reportedly harassed a U.S.-flagged merchant ship with a U.S. crew described as legally sailing through the area in international waters. Two boats belonging to the Revolutionary Guard Corps approached the tanker at high speed and threatened to board and seize it, according to the military official. A U.S. warship that was in the area visited the area and the situation calmed, U.S. military officials said.

The Abraham Lincoln and its ships arrived in the region last week. They are still heading to a location from where they could be used to support strikes against the regime in Tehran, according to three US officials. The ships join what Trump has described as an “armada” of military equipment already there, including a dozen other ships, air squadrons and logistics planes and dozens of F-15 and F-35 stealth jet fighters, according to two U.S. officials.

The Pentagon also has more than 450 Tomahawk land-attack missiles on ships in the region, weapons ready to be used against the regime if Trump greenlights any operation, according to a U.S. official and open source tracking.

“This is moving forward quickly, with great power and enthusiasm and determination,” Trump said of the armada on social media last week.

While some U.S. officials, lawmakers and allies in the Middle East remain unclear about what Trump will ultimately decide, he has made clear he wants rapid and decisive military action if he decides to pursue strikes, officials said.