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Trump Signals Support for New Israeli Attack If Iran Moves toward Bomb
(Wall Street Journal) Alexander Ward - At the White House last week, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu told President Trump that if Iran resumed moving toward a nuclear weapon, Israel would carry out further military strikes. Trump responded that he favored a diplomatic settlement with Tehran, but didn't otherwise object to the Israeli plan. Israel wouldn't necessarily seek explicit American approval to resume strikes on Iran, a senior Israeli official said. Trump is counting on the threat of further attacks to pressure Tehran into an agreement that would foreclose it from building a nuclear weapon. Israel is skeptical a diplomatic settlement would prevent Iran from secretly rushing toward a nuclear weapon. Top Israeli officials said they thought the U.S. and Israeli military strikes had set back Tehran's ability to build a nuclear weapon by up to two years, matching a recent Pentagon assessment. Any effort by Iran to retrieve the uranium from Isfahan or revive the decimated nuclear program would be quickly detected by Israel, the senior Israeli official said.