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Biden Discussed Striking Iran Nuclear Facilities if Tehran Dashes for Bomb: Report
US President Joe Biden addresses rising levels of antisemitism, during a speech at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Annual Days of Remembrance ceremony, at the US Capitol building in Washington, DC, US, May 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
US President Joe Biden recently discussed plans for a potential strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities prior to his Jan. 20 departure from office if the Iranian regime makes substantial progress toward a nuclear weapon, according to a new report.
In a meeting “several weeks ago,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan presented Biden with a variety of options to decimate Iran’s capabilities to generate nuclear weapons, Axios revealed on Thursday.
Biden was not presented with new information during the secret meeting, which was reportedly conducted for the purpose of “prudent scenario planning” on how the US should respond to Iran ramping up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
No decisions were made during the meeting, and there are currently no active discussions inside the White House about possible military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities, Axios reported.
Some members of Biden’s team have argued that the combination of Iran’s increased nuclear activity and its weakened military state due to Israel’s war against its terrorist proxies has given Washington an opportunity to strike the regime.
In the year following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel last Oct. 7, the Israeli military has decimated key pieces of Iran’s proxy network in the Middle East — most notably Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israel also set back Iran’s ballistic missile production and extensively damaged its air defense system with an October strike against Iranian military targets.
The Israeli military campaign has, according to experts, left Iran particularly vulnerable at home and hindered the regime’s ability to project power across the Middle East.
However, many observers fear that Iran may opt to break out toward a nuclear weapon in order to bolster its deterrence. Sullivan expressed that concern last month.
“If you’re Iran right now and you’re looking around at the fact that your conventional capability has been reduced, your proxies have been reduced, your main client state has been eliminated, [Syrian leader Bashar al] Assad has fallen, it’s no wonder there are voices saying: ‘Hey, maybe we need to go for a nuclear weapon right now,’” he told CNN.
Some experts have argued such statements indicate more of a willingness by the US to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities preemptively than ever before.
“By saying this, the current administration, which has previously been reluctant to attack Iran, is signaling concern and suggesting that the US might have to act,” Professor Jonathan Rynhold, head of the Department of Political Studies at Bar-Ilan University, told The Media Line. “There is more willingness now in the US to act preemptively.”
It is unclear whether Biden’s team has discussed the prospect of striking Iranian nuclear sites with the incoming Trump administration, which is expected to adopt a tougher overall posture toward Iran.
Iran has claimed that its nuclear program is for civilian purposes rather than building weapons. However, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear watchdog, reported earlier last month that Iran had greatly accelerated uranium enrichment to close to weapons grade at its Fordow site dug into a mountain.
The UK, France, and Germany said in a recent statement that there is no “credible civilian justification” for Iran’s recent nuclear activity, arguing it “gives Iran the capability to rapidly produce sufficient fissile material for multiple nuclear weapons.”
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Report: Wary of Assassination by Israel, Khamenei Names 3 Potential Successors
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, May 20, 2025. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
i24 News – Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei named three senior clerics as candidates to succeed him should he be killed, the New York Times reported on Saturday citing unnamed Iranian officials. It is understood the Ayatollah fears he could be assassinated in the coming days.
Khamenei reportedly mostly speaks with his commanders through a trusted aide now, suspending electronic communications.
Khamenei has designated three senior religious figures as candidates to replace him as well as choosing successors in the military chain of command in the likely event that additional senior officials be eliminated.
Earlier on Saturday Israel confirmed the elimination of Saeed Izadi and Bhanam Shahriari.
Shahriari, head of Iran’s Quds Force Weapons Transfer Unit, responsible for arming Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, was killed in an Israeli airstrike over 1,000 km from Israel in western Iran.
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B-2 Bombers Moving to Guam Amid Middle East Tensions, US Officials Say
FILE PHOTO: A U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit bomber takes off from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam January 11, 2018. Picture taken January 11, 2018. U.S. Air Force/Airman 1st Class Gerald Willis/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
The United States is moving B-2 bombers to the Pacific island of Guam, two US officials told Reuters on Saturday, as President Donald Trump weighs whether the United States should take part in Israel’s strikes against Iran.
It was unclear whether the bomber deployment is tied to Middle East tensions.
The B-2 can be equipped to carry America’s 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, designed to destroy targets deep underground. That is the weapon that experts say could be used to strike Iran‘s nuclear program, including Fordow.
The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, declined to disclose any further details. One official said no forward orders had been given yet to move the bombers beyond Guam. They did not say how many B-2 bombers are being moved.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Experts and officials are closely watching to see whether the B-2 bombers will move forward to a US-British military base on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia. Experts say that Diego Garcia is in an ideal position to operate in the Middle East.
The United States had B-2 bombers on Diego Garcia up until last month, when they were replaced with B-52 bombers.
Israel said on Saturday it had killed a veteran Iranian commander during attacks by both sides in the more than week-long air war, while Tehran said it would not negotiate over its nuclear program while under threat.
Israel says Iran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons, while Iran says its atomic program is only for peaceful purposes.
Trump has said he would take up to two weeks to decide whether the United States should enter the conflict on Israel’s side, enough time “to see whether or not people come to their senses,” he said.
Reuters was first to report this week the movement of a large number of tanker aircraft to Europe and other military assets to the Middle East, including the deployment of more fighter jets.
An aircraft carrier in the Indo-Pacific is also heading to the Middle East.
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Nuclear Diplomacy Stuck, Israel Says it Killed Top Iran Commander
Smoke rises following an Israeli attack in Tehran, Iran, June 18, 2025. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Iran deems European proposals to curb its nuclear program unrealistic and a hurdle to agreement, a senior Iranian official said on Saturday, while Israel said it killed a veteran Iranian commander during attacks by both sides.
The more than week-long air war between longtime foes Israel and Iran continued with reports of strikes on an Iranian nuclear facility. The US was weighing whether to back Israel in the conflict while other powers urged de-escalation.
Iran‘s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met British, French and German counterparts, plus the EU, on Friday in Geneva in search of a path back to diplomacy and a possible ceasefire.
But proposals made by the European powers were “unrealistic,” the senior Iranian official told Reuters, saying that insistence on them would not bring agreement closer.
“In any case, Iran will review the European proposals in Tehran and present its responses in the next meeting,” the official said, adding that zero enrichment was a dead end and Tehran would not negotiate over its defensive capabilities.
Israel launched attacks on June 13 saying Iran was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons, while Iran says its atomic program is only for peaceful purposes. Israel is widely assumed to possess nuclear weapons, which it neither confirms nor denies.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Saeed Izadi, who led the Palestine Corps of the Quds Force, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ overseas arm, was killed in a strike on an apartment in the city of Qom.
Calling his killing a “major achievement for Israeli intelligence and the Air Force”, Katz said Izadi had financed and armed the Palestinian militant group Hamas ahead of its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza.
The Revolutionary Guards said five of its members died in attacks on Khorramabad, according to Iranian media. They did not mention Izadi, who was on US and British sanctions lists, but said Israel had also attacked a building in Qom, with initial reports of a 16-year-old killed and two people injured.
HUNDREDS KILLED
At least 430 people have been killed and 3,500 injured in Iran since Israel began its attacks, Iranian state-run Nour News said, citing the health ministry.
In Israel, 24 civilians have been killed by Iranian missile attacks, according to local authorities, in the worst conflict between the longtime enemies.
At a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul, Araqchi said Israel‘s aggression, which he said had indications of US involvement, should stop so Iran can “come back to diplomacy.”
“It is obvious that I can’t go to negotiations with the US when our people are under bombardments under the support of the US,” he told reporters on the sidelines, before meeting Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.
The top Iranian diplomat said US involvement in the conflict would be “very dangerous.” Araqchi is set to visit Moscow, Iran‘s ally, on Monday.
President Donald Trump has said he would take up to two weeks to decide whether the United States should enter the conflict on Israel‘s side, enough time “to see whether or not people come to their senses,” he said.
Iran would be able to have a nuclear weapon “within a matter of weeks, or certainly within a matter of months,” he said on Friday, adding: “We can’t let that happen.”
Yet in March, Tulsi Gabbard, his national intelligence director, testified to Congress that the US intelligence community judged that Tehran was not working on a nuclear warhead.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said that a centrifuge manufacturing workshop at the Isfahan nuclear facility, one of Iran‘s biggest, was hit – but added it contained no nuclear material.
Gulf Cooperation Council ambassadors expressed concerns to UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi about the safety of nuclear facilities close to their countries and “dangerous repercussions” of targeting them, Qatar state news agency said.
Israel said it was attacking military infrastructure.
INTERCEPTIONS OVER TEL AVIV
Early on Saturday, air raid sirens were triggered across parts of central Israel and in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, with missile interceptions visible over Tel Aviv and explosions echoing. There were no reports of casualties.
Those killed in Iran include the military’s top echelon and nuclear scientists. Israel said it also killed a second commander of the Guards’ overseas arm, whom it identified as Benham Shariyari, during an overnight strike.
Iran‘s health minister, Mohammadreza Zafarqandi, said Israel has attacked three hospitals during the conflict, killing two health workers and a child, and has targeted six ambulances, according to Fars.
Asked about such reports, an Israeli military official said that only military targets were being struck, though there may have been collateral damage in some incidents.
An Iranian missile hit a hospital in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba on Thursday.
Turkey, Russia and China have demanded immediate de-escalation.
Despite the downbeat assessment from the senior Iranian official, French President Emmanuel Macron said he and Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian agreed on a Saturday call to accelerate talks.
Israel says it will not stop attacks until it dismantles Iran‘s nuclear program and ballistic missile capabilities, which it views as an existential threat, saying this could take more than a few weeks.
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