Trump deploys B-2 stealth bombers as he considers striking Iran
US B-2 stealth bombers have been moved to the American military base in Guam, as Donald Trump prepared to meet with his national security team and discuss whether to join Israel's attacks on Iranian nuclear sites.
As many as four B-2 stealth bombers took off from the Whiteman Air Force base in Missouri on Saturday, heading towards the US naval station in the Pacific.
The B-2 is designed for long-range missions and is the only aircraft capable of delivering the 30,000-lb 'Massive Ordnance Penetrator' precision-guided bunker busters that could be used to destroy Iran's underground nuclear plant at Fordow.
The US president was expected to call a national security meeting on Saturday night as he decides whether or not to join the conflict.
The relocation of the B-2 stealth bombers, which puts them in striking distance of Iran with the support of refuelling tankers, appears to be a clear demonstration of US military might as it ramps up pressure on Iran to strike a nuclear deal.
From Guam, they could fly to the US base on Diego Garcia, in the Chagos Islands, which is within striking distance of Iran.
The movements come amid reports that the US president tried to arrange a meeting with Iranian officials but couldn't get through to Ayatollah Khamenei, the country's supreme leader.
Mr Trump and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, quietly sought to organise face-to-face talks with Iranian officials in Istanbul this week, but efforts collapsed when Khamenei, who is in hiding, could not be reached, three US officials told Axios.
The backchannel effort reveals the extent the US president was willing to go to seek a diplomatic solution with Iran and avoid US military intervention.
On Saturday, Emmanuel Macron, the French president, vowed that Europe would step up its diplomatic efforts, a day after Mr Trump dismissed European efforts to end the war between Iran and Israel.
After speaking with Masoud Pezeshkian, the Iranian president, Mr Macron wrote on X: 'I am convinced that a path exists to end war and avoid even greater dangers.
'To achieve this, we will accelerate the negotiations led by France and its European partners with Iran.'
'Iran must never acquire nuclear weapons,' he added. 'It is up to Iran to provide full guarantees that its intentions are peaceful.'
His comments followed criticism from Mr Trump, who dismissed the role of European partners in brokering a ceasefire after Friday's talks with top Iranian officials ended with no breakthrough.
Mr Trump told reporters: 'Iran doesn't want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us.'
Iran and Israel continued to trade missile barrages on Saturday, with a senior Israeli military official saying that IDF strikes would continue for 'as long as possible' and anyone saying otherwise was making 'empty promises'.
Israeli government officials had originally publicised a 'two-week' time frame for the campaign, saying its objectives could be met in that period.
Overnight on Friday, 50 Israeli jets hit targets across Iran with 150 munitions, killing three senior Iranian military commanders, including the new commander of its drone force.
The three senior Iranian commanders killed were named by the IDF as Saeed Izadi, head of the Palestinian Division in the IRGC Quds Force, Behnam Shahriyari, head of the Quds Force's Unit 190, and Aminpour Joudaki, head of the IRGC Aerospace Force's drone unit.
Izadi had been killed 'hiding' in a location that was not his home, indicating the power of Israel's intelligence, said the IDF.
Israel also hit the Isfahan nuclear site in Iran for the second time, further degrading its capacity to manufacture the centrifuges required to produce weapons-grade uranium.
A senior military official said Israel had dealt a 'severe blow to centrifuge production' in Iran and had taken out '50 per cent or more' of its ballistic missile launchers.
They added that missile launchers were a 'bottleneck' for Iran, with the country having many more missiles than launchers.
Israeli officials trumpeted the success of their air strikes, claiming they had set back Tehran's development of nuclear weapons by 'years'.
'According to the assessment we hear, we already delayed for at least two or three years the possibility for them to have a nuclear bomb,' Gideon Saar, Israel's foreign minister, said in an interview with Bild on Saturday.
Streaks of smoke were also visible in the sky over Tel Aviv on Saturday as Israel's air defence responded to a fresh onslaught of projectiles from Tehran.
During the barrage, an Iranian drone hit a home in Israel's Beit She'an valley region, marking the first time a drone has hit a residential area in Israel since the conflict began on June 13.
In a message to American officials, Iran's top diplomat warned that it would be 'very dangerous for everybody' if the US were to join Israel's strikes.
Speaking on his way back from talks in Geneva, Abbas Araghchi, Iran's foreign minister, said: 'Unfortunately, we have heard that the US may join this aggression.
'That would be very unfortunate and very, very dangerous for everybody.'
The Islamic Republic has so far ruled out further nuclear talks with the US until Israel halts its attacks.
In a sign of how precarious the current conflict has left the Iranian regime, the supreme leader is said to have named three senior clerics as candidates to succeed him should he be killed, according to The New York Times.
Buried 300ft inside a mountain, the Fordow enrichment plant is one of three key pieces of nuclear infrastructure in Iran, alongside the Natanz enrichment plant and research facilities in Isfahan.
If the US were to launch a strike on the nuclear plant from Diego Garcia, it would need permission from the UK, which maintains sovereignty over the islands.
On Thursday, Mr Trump said that the decision on whether to strike Iran would be made 'in the next two weeks'.
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