Trump said to order new wave of Iran strikes aimed at forcing regime’s surrender

US President Donald Trump has ordered another wave of strikes against Iran, with the aim of forcing the Islamic Republic’s surrender, the Wall Street Journal reported early Saturday, with other reports suggesting Israel could take part in attacks expected to target Iran’s energy infrastructure.

Citing US officials, the report said the bombing was expected to last several days and could start as soon as this weekend.

Trump had earlier indicated that the US would be resuming hostilities.

“We’ll be hitting them very hard,” Trump said about Iran on Friday in an exchange with reporters during a cabinet meeting. “You know, at some point they’re going to say, ‘We just can’t take it anymore.’”

Asked if Americans should be prepared for the back-and-forth strikes between the US and Iran to continue, Trump responded, “A little bit.”

Previous talks between the two parties following an April truce stalled, with the ceasefire collapsing about a month ago and Iran again obstructing the Strait of Hormuz, a vital conduit for the global supply of oil and gas.

Iran blockaded the strait early in the war, which began with US and Israeli strikes on the Islamic Republic on February 28.

A deal last month between the US and Iran partially reopened the strait, with future talks planned to resolve larger issues, including Iran’s nuclear program. But the agreement, which Israel was not a party to, collapsed in early July after Iran fired on vessels. Israel has also yet to participate in the current round of fighting.

Israel was not party to the understanding and opposes a halt to strikes on Iran that would leave its nuclear and missile programs intact.

Meanwhile, reports circulated about the possibility of Israeli involvement in the planned strikes.

CNN reported that there was no indication as of Saturday that Israel would participate in the potential offensive, after sources cited by CBS said the US and Israel were jointly planning an imminent bombing campaign on Iranian energy facilities.

ABC News cited a source as saying the strikes were discussed with Israeli officials, but that it remains unclear if Israel will be directly involved.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House this week for his first in-person talks with Trump since the Iran war began in February, describing the meeting as an opportunity “to coordinate on things that are important for the security and for the future of Israel.”

Beyond those remarks, few details regarding the content of the discussions were made public. A senior official in the prime minister’s entourage told The Times of Israel shortly after the sit-down that they “talked about all arenas — primarily Iran.”

Following the report of US attack plans, Iran’s military accused the US of “escalating tensions” in the Middle East, warning countries in the region against cooperating with Washington.

“The United States is rapidly moving down the path of escalating tensions in the region,” said Ali Abdollahi, head of Iran’s military central command. “Any country serving as a defensive shield for criminal and aggressive America will be engulfed by the flames of war.”

Earlier this week, Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Israel “very much” wanted to strike Iran, but that the US “is not approving it at the moment because of the concern that Iran would attack neighboring countries, causing a global oil crisis.”

Iran’s army warned on Sunday that the Middle East war would widen if the US chose to press ahead with attacks on the Islamic Republic, with army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia telling state television that he believed Israel was trying to prod the US into resuming attacks.

Israel is presumably not the only target of Iran’s threats, as Saudi Arabia joined the US in striking Iran-backed militant groups in Iraq earlier this week.

The US last struck Iran early Thursday, a day after Iran targeted American troops in the region with ballistic missiles. Mediator Pakistan insisted later that day that negotiations were ongoing. But Iranian strikes continued on Friday and into Saturday.

The Kuwaiti defense ministry said Saturday that it intercepted drones fired by Iran that targeted “vital” sites, including an unspecified government facility in the Gulf state’s north and vehicles of a civilian company on Kuwait’s Bubiyan Island.

Shrapnel caused some material damage, but no one was hurt, the Kuwaiti ministry said, vowing to “safeguard the sovereignty of the homeland.”

The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident – ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded – I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.

There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.

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