It’s being reported today by Reuters that the US and Israel had a tense phone call on Thursday after President Trump announced a two-week window to decide whether or not to use our MOPs to take out Iran’s Fordow nuclear site.
Specifically, Israel doesn’t want to wait two weeks to destroy Fordow and wants much more urgent action, even warning they could take unilateral action before the deadline is up.
But Vance pushed back on them and against the notion of US involvement, suggesting they could end up dragging the US into another war.
Here’s more on this from Reuters:
Israeli officials have told the Trump administration they do not want to wait two weeks for Iran to reach a deal to dismantle key parts of its nuclear program and Israel could act alone before the deadline is up, two sources said, amid a continuing debate on Trump’s team about whether the U.S. should get involved.
The two sources familiar with the matter said Israel had communicated their concerns to Trump administration officials on Thursday in what they described as a tense phone call.
The Israeli officials said they do not want to wait the two weeks that U.S. President Donald Trump presented on Thursday as a deadline for deciding whether the U.S. will get involved in the Israel-Iran war, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The Israeli participants on the call included Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz and military chief Eyal Zamir, according to a security source.
The Israelis believe they have a limited window of opportunity to move against the deeply buried site at Fordow, the crown jewel of Iran’s nuclear program,
said the sources. The United States is the only country with the bunker-busting bombs powerful enough to reach the facility, which is dug into the side of a mountain.
A person in Washington familiar with the matter said Israel has communicated to the U.S. administration that it believes Trump’s window of up to two weeks is too long and that more urgent action is needed. The person did not say whether the Israelis made that point during the high-level call.
During the call, Vice President JD Vance pushed back, saying the United States shouldn’t be directly involved and suggesting that the Israelis were going to drag the country into war, said the sources. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also participated in the call, said a security source. Reuters could not determine who else took part in the call.
The Jerusalem Post reported earlier that a phone call had taken place on Thursday.
Publicly, Netanyahu has not ruled out Israel attacking Fordow alone, though officials have not provided any details on how that would be achieved.
Four sources said it is now increasingly likely that the country will launch a solo military operation. Israeli air superiority over much of Iran makes an operation more feasible, though still risky, said two of the sources.
The Israelis feel they have the momentum and have limited time given the costs of the war, one source added.
“I don’t see them waiting much longer,” said the source.
It is not clear whether such an operation would involve bombing, ground forces, or both. Two of the sources said that rather than attempting to destroy the entire site Israel could instead do significant damage to it.
With this kind of disagreement in the administration it will be interesting to see what Trump does here. He clearly believes destroying Iran’s biggest nuclear site is an act of peace for the world and it looks like he may be headed in that direction. But you can be sure he doesn’t want another war with the Middle East.