American commanders have put troops on high alert throughout the region as fears of a wider war grow.
A bipartisan pair in the House and a Democrat in the Senate have moved to force votes in the coming days on requiring congressional approval before U.S. troops could take offensive action against Iran.
Israel’s military campaign reminds some of America’s ill-fated Middle East interventions, which President Trump has long denounced.
The president wrote in a social media post that the United States knew his location.
President Trump spent the first months of his term holding back Israel’s push for an assault on Iran’s nuclear program. With the war underway, his posture has gyrated as he weighs sending in the U.S. military.
President Trump’s early departure comes after a White House official said he had decided not to sign onto a G7 statement about Israel and Iran. In the end, he did sign it.
President Trump’s contradictory comments left Israelis and Iranians trying to understand whether and how the U.S. would intervene.
Iranian officials have warned that U.S. participation in an attack on its facilities will imperil any chance of the nuclear disarmament deal the president insists he is still interested in pursuing.
Only the U.S. military has the 30,000-pound bomb capable of reaching the facility and the bomber that can carry it.