Moscow Warns Against 'Catastrophic' US Involvement; Trump Says Gabbard "Wrong" About Iran Nukes

A new Friday headline in The Guardian reads Trump weighs Iran strike as Pentagon officials privately divided over ‘bunker buster’ bombs - and though the highly alarming report is sourced to the usual anonymous US defense officials, the question of a 'small' nuke as an 'option' for taking out Iran's most secure underground enrichment facility appears to still be an 'open' one - or at least one where 'no options have been taken off the table'. The report says:

Donald Trump has suggested to defense officials it would make sense for the US to launch strikes against Iran only if the so-called “bunker buster” bomb was guaranteed to destroy the critical uranium enrichment facility at Fordow, according to people familiar with the deliberations.

Trump was told that dropping the GBU-57s, a 13.6-tonne (30,000lb) bomb would effectively eliminate Fordow but he does not appear to be fully convinced, the people said, and has held off authorizing strikes as he also awaits the possibility that the threat of US involvement would lead Iran to talks.

However, the report lays out that "Trump is not considering using a tactical nuclear weapon on Fordow and the possibility was not presented by defense secretary Pete Hegseth and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff Gen Dan Caine in meetings in the White House situation room, two people familiar with the matter said."

This is still at 'speculation' phase, yet the world is a mere week in to witnessing the devastating aerial war between Iran and Israel in the Middle East, where warplanes and ballistic missiles are soaring over Jordan, Syria, and Iraq between the two enemies, and Western mainstream media is already pushing the tactical supposed 'nuclear option'.

This has been enough to elicit an urgent response from the Kremlin, with Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling TASS that "There have been a lot of speculations," and that "This would be a catastrophic development, but there are so many speculations that in fact, it’s impossible to comment on them."

Here is how Russian news agency TASS is framing the question of just how US bombers could take out Fordow, which lies deep underground and is highly protected:

The New York Times reported earlier, citing sources, that according to the US intelligence community, Tehran might begin developing nuclear weapons if Washington targeted the Fordow facility or if Israel assassinated Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. US intelligence agencies believe that Tehran has not yet made a final decision on creating a nuclear bomb, the newspaper added.

In March, US National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard said that US intelligence agencies saw no signs of Tehran working to develop nuclear weapons. She added that according to her data, Iran’s supreme leader had not authorized the resumption of the nuclear weapons program suspended in 2003. Gabbard stressed that the US intelligence community was carefully monitoring Iran’s nuclear activities.

Moscow has condemned Israel's attack on Iran which began in the overnight and early hours of last Friday, and Russia's ambassador to the UN has said Tel Aviv showed a 'blatant disregard' for ongoing efforts seeking a diplomatic solution.

Meanwhile, on Friday Trump publicly rebuked his Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard for the second time this week over her claim that the US intelligence community does not believe Iran is building a nuclear weapon.

"What intelligence do you have that Iran is building a nuclear weapon? Your intelligence community had said they have no evidence that they are at this point," Trump asked a reporter after arriving in New Jersey. 

"Well, then my intelligence community is wrong. Who in the intelligence community said that?" Trump responded. When a reporter responded that Gabbard said that, Trump replied "She's wrong." 

Below is a translation of some of the Russian UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya’s statements at the Security Council, via Al Jazeera:

• Iranian peaceful civilian nuclear facilities continue to be targeted, and this is liable to plunge us into a hitherto unseen nuclear catastrophe.
• The UN Security Council…must provide an objective assessment of the situation and devise an appropriate solution.
• It is Israel which attacked Iran on the eve of the latest planned round of indirect talks between Washington and Tehran.
• West Jerusalem not only demonstrated blatant disregard for the efforts that have been undertaken to seek a diplomatic solution to issues around the Iranian nuclear program but also demonstrated contempt for its key ally, the United States, which, up until recently, had been declaring an intent to reach a compromise solution.
• The nuclear facilities and installations in this country are under the safeguards of the IAEA and are subject to continuous and rigorous verification.
• Israel has disregarded the assessments of the specialist international agency, having, on its authority, single-handedly, decided to carry out strikes against a sovereign country with no regard for the UN Charter.

Much of the speculation has only grown in the wake of a Thursday Fox report citing White House officials:

Based on a Thursday afternoon press briefing, the White House seems to be siding with Israeli intelligence over the assessment of the US intelligence community, as presented by DNI Tulsi Gabbard, who may have already been sidelined in White House Situation Room discussions.

American mainstream media has for years tended to side with the assumption that Iran must be developing nukes, despite the CIA and various UN and international agencies being skeptical or having low confidence in this.