Iran war news: US faces ‘impossible’ military strike or flawed nuclear deal

Tehran. A senior US official told reporters the White House sees only two paths on Iran: an “impossible” full-scale attack or a “bad” revived nuclear accord.

The blunt assessment, delivered on background late Tuesday, signals shrinking confidence in either coercion or diplomacy as Iran enriches uranium to 84 percent purity, just shy of weapons grade.

Tensions have spiked since an Israeli drone strike killed a Revolutionary Guard commander in Damascus last week. Iran responded with a 200-missile barrage on Israeli bases, the largest salvo in the two foes’ shadow war. With Israel urging joint action, President Donald Trump’s team has spent 72 hours gaming options only to conclude that each ends in unacceptable cost, the official said.

Inside the Pentagon, planners briefed Trump that even a 48-hour air campaign would require at least 3,000 sorties to hit Iran’s 20 known nuclear facilities, many buried under 60 meters of rock, two Defense officials told GlobalBeat. They warned the president that Iran could still reconstitute within 3 years while Hezbollah rockets blanketed northern Israel and global oil prices vaulted past $150 a barrel. “The math doesn’t work,” one planner said on condition of anonymity.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pressed Trump in a secure call Monday to green-light simultaneous strikes, arguing the window to cripple Tehran’s program “closes within months,” according to a readout obtained by GlobalBeat. Trump replied that the US would “back Israel to the hilt” but stopped short of endorsing offensive operations, aides said. Instead he asked for fresh sanctions language that could be signed within 24 hours.

European capitals, meanwhile, rushed to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement that Trump himself quit in 2018. Diplomats from Britain, France and Germany tabled a draft in Vienna on Tuesday offering Iran partial sanctions relief if it caps enrichment at 5 percent and ships out stockpiles. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi dismissed the text as “a photo-copy of an old mistake,” yet did not walk away, negotiators told reporters.

Background

The 2015 accord, brokered by Barack Obama, traded curbs on Iran’s nuclear work for sanctions relief. After Trump withdrew and re-imposed sanctions, Tehran breached limits every 60 days starting in 2019. UN inspectors now estimate breakout time—the span needed to enrich enough uranium for one bomb—has dropped to 7 days from 12 months under the deal.

US-Iran clashes have already edged into direct conflict. In April 2025 American F-16s struck IRGC sites in eastern Syria after a drone killed a US contractor in Erbil. Iran’s missile reply last week marked the first time it fired on Israeli soil from its own territory rather than through proxies, crossing what US officials call a “red zone” toward open war.

What’s Next

Trump will convene his national-security principals again on Thursday, officials said. A decision on whether to unleash a final tranche of banking sanctions on Iran’s remaining 18 oil buyers—or to bless an Israeli solo strike—must land before Israeli military planners finalize deployment orders this weekend.

Congressional hawks, led by Senator Tom Cotton, circulated a resolution Tuesday authorizing force if Iran enriches above 90 percent. With crude already up $11 since last week, traders are pricing in either a supply shock or a surprise détente; neither scenario looks stable for long.