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Two months before the handover, US President Donald Trump announced his intention to attack Iran’s main nuclear facility.
According to Reuters, Trump discussed the possibility of launching an attack on Iran in a meeting in the Oval Office last week.
The meeting was attended by Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, newly appointed Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Millie, a US official said on condition of anonymity.
American media New York TimesWho confirmed the veracity of the meeting.
The meeting also advised Trump not to go ahead with his plan to attack Iran, considering the risk of widespread clashes after the attack, the media added.
“Trump wanted to know if there was an opportunity to attack Iran,” the official said. You have been informed of the situation here and in the end it has been decided not to proceed.
Reuters also contacted the White House for more details, but declined to comment.
For the past four years since he came to power, Trump has pursued an aggressive policy against Iran.
In 2016, he withdrew from the much-discussed Iran nuclear deal led by his predecessor, President Barack Obama. In addition, it imposed various economic sanctions on Iran.
A day before Trump’s request, the United Nations released a report on Iran’s growing uranium reserves, Reuters reported.
The United Nations watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said in a report that Iran had stored at least 12 times more uranium than agreed to in the international agreement.
The agency also said that Iran’s uranium reserves now stand at about 2,443 kg.
Uranium is used primarily to make atomic bombs.
Meanwhile, Alireza Mirousfi, the Iranian spokeswoman for the UN mission, said that Iran was carrying out a nuclear program for civilian use in peaceful activities.
In January this year, General Kashem Solaimani, head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, was killed in an airstrike near an airport in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, at the behest of the Trump administration.
He was the second most powerful man in Iran after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Trump has not been involved in a major military conflict against Iran since the attack. He has also tried to withdraw American troops from various battlefields around the world.
Although Joe Biden won the preliminary count in the November 3 US election, Trump did not accept the allegations of voter fraud.
President-elect Joe Biden will hand over power to Trump on January 20.
Analysts say an attack on Iran’s main nuclear facility, Natanz, could escalate into a regional conflict and pose a serious foreign policy challenge for Joe Biden.