US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that Israel would be the 'leader' of strikes against Iran if Tehran fails to give up its nuclear weapons programme. Trump's comments have come ahead of this weekend's scheduled talks, involving US and Iranian officials in Oman. While Trump described the talks as "direct", Iran has called the engagement "indirect" talks with the US.
Regarding the usage of the military in halting Iran's nuclear weapons programme, Trump said, "If it requires military, we're going to have military."
"Israel will obviously be very much involved in that. They'll be the leader of that. But nobody leads us, but we do what we want to do," he added.
The Pentagon remains concerned about Iran's nuclear programme as Tehran is closer than ever to a workable weapon. Trump said on Wednesday that he does not have a definitive timeline for the talks to come to a resolution.
The US, along with other major powers, reached an agreement with Iran that limited Tehran's enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. However, during his first term, Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the nuclear agreement in 2018, as he called it the “worst deal ever”.