Two months from the end of his mandate, should we fear Donald Trump's latest geopolitical decisions?
The November 16 edition of the New York Times reports that the outgoing president is said to have polled senior US officials on the possibility of "acting" against an Iranian nuclear site.
It was during a meeting Thursday in the Oval Office that Donald Trump asked several aides, including Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Chief of Staff Mark Milley 's 'he had options to act against "an Iranian nuclear site" in the coming weeks.
EXCLUSIVE: Trump asked top aids about military strikes to stop Iran from expanding its nuclear program.
His advisers said don't do it.
w / @ maggieNYT, @sangerNYT, @helenecooper, @jakesNYT https://t.co/mjWUaoYPUz
- Eric Schmitt (@EricSchmittNYT) November 17, 2020
These senior officials "dissuaded the president from going ahead with a military strike", given the risk that it quickly degenerates into a larger conflict, the daily reports in its columns.
The New York Times writes that Donald Trump asked the question after a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the stockpile of low-enriched uranium accumulated by Tehran was now 12 times greater than the limit provided for by the Vienna International Nuclear Agreement on Iran (2015), a text that the US President unilaterally denounced in 2018.
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The newspaper said it was the Natanz nuclear complex in central Iran that most likely could have been targeted.
"To any action against the Iranian people, there will be a devastating response"
"There could be attempts" to attack Iran, "but personally I do not foresee such a thing," Iranian government spokesman Ali Rabii said on Tuesday, in a hurry to react to the article. from the New York Times.
"I do not believe it is possible that they may want to increase insecurity in the world and in the region," added Ali Rabii, specifying that he is giving here a personal "opinion" and not expressing himself "as a spokesperson for the government ”.
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"But in any event, our short answer has always been this: that in any action against the Iranian people, there will be a devastating response", Ali Rabii added, using a phrase customary by civil and military authorities. Iranian.
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Iran is the bête noire of Donald Trump, who, by leaving the Vienna agreement restored the American sanctions against the Islamic Republic that this pact had made it possible to lift.
In response, Tehran has since 2019 freed itself from most of its key commitments made in Vienna.
The Europeans are trying to save the Vienna agreement, at least until Joe Biden takes office, winner of the US presidential election on November 3, whose victory Donald Trump has still not recognized and who should return to diplomacy.
However, the Trump administration has promised to further strengthen punitive measures against Iran, a strategy seen by some observers as the desire to build such a “wall of sanctions” that it would be difficult for Joe Biden to go back.