US threatens to attack Iran

US PRESIDENT Donald Trump said on Thursday that Iran must make a “meaningful deal” in negotiations with Washington in the next 10 days or else “bad things happen”, as he deployed warships, fighter jets and other military hardware to the region.

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Trump was speaking at the inaugural meeting of the “Board of Peace”, his initiative to secure stability in Gaza.

He warned that Washington “may have to take it a step further” without any agreement, adding: “You're going to be finding out over the next probably 10 days.”

Trump's comments came soon after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued his own warning to Iran saying: “If the ayatollahs make a mistake and attack us, they will receive a response they cannot even imagine.”

The warnings were issued days after the US and Iran held a second round of Omani-mediated talks, this time in Geneva, with the US seeking to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb, something it says it is not pursuing, and Iran seeking relief from US sanctions.

Trump has threatened military action against Iran, at first over a deadly crackdown on protesters last month then more recently over its nuclear programme.

Iran’s atomic energy chief on Thursday said “no country can deprive Iran of the right” to nuclear enrichment, following fresh US warnings that there were “many reasons” to strike the Islamic republic.

A previous attempt at negotiations collapsed when Israel launched surprise strikes on Iran last June, beginning a 12-day war that Washington briefly joined to bomb Iranian nuclear sites.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had been briefed on his military options with “all of them designed to maximise damage”, including a campaign to “kill scores of Iranian political and military leaders, with the goal of overthrowing the government”, unnamed US officials said.