U.S. President Donald Trump informed senior advisors that he had approved attack plans against Iran but had temporarily postponed the final order to see whether Tehran would abandon its nuclear program.
The above information was reported by the Wall Street Journal on June 18, citing three people familiar with internal discussions, and was republished by Reuters on the same day.
In a related development, The Times of Israel reported that U.S. President Donald Trump declared that the possibility of the Iranian regime collapsing is entirely possible.
In response to a related question from a reporter in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump said, "Of course, anything can happen, right?"
When asked whether the U.S. was preparing for this scenario, Mr. Trump affirmed, "We have plans for every situation" and added that he would meet with security advisors in the Situation Room within the next hour.
President Trump once again emphasized that Iran should have accepted the U.S. nuclear deal proposal within the 60-day deadline he had set.
When asked what caused him to shift from supporting negotiations with Iran to potentially approving a U.S. attack on Tehran's nuclear facilities, President Trump pointed to the results of the initial attack carried out by Israel in the early hours of June 13 against the Islamic Republic.
"The first night was brutal, and it pushed one side out," Mr. Trump said.
Also on June 18, some American diplomats and family members were allowed to leave the U.S. Embassy in Israel and are currently being evacuated by U.S. military aircraft.
A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department clarified: "Due to the current situation and the permitted evacuation order from the embassy, mission personnel have begun leaving Israel using various means."
According to an official, those being evacuated by air on June 18 included staff of the head of the mission, and many other military evacuation flights are expected to occur in the coming days.
Inside the State Department, two officials stated that there had been in-depth discussions in recent days about conducting a full evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Israel, with any decisions on this matter expected to be made by the White House.