Speculation Increases That War Against Iran is Imminent
Axios: “The Trump administration is closer to a major war in the Middle East than most Americans realize.”
With Iran stalling on the nuclear talks and issuing fresh threats, President Donald Trump could be compelled to order a military strike in the coming days or weeks, U.S. and Israeli news outlets report.
“The Trump administration is closer to a major war in the Middle East than most Americans realize,” Axios reported Wednesday. “It could begin very soon.”
According to the news outlet, the military response will likely come in the form of “a joint U.S.-Israeli campaign that’s much broader in scope — and more existential for the regime — than the Israeli-led 12-day war last June, which the U.S. eventually joined to take out Iran’s underground nuclear facilities.”
🚨🇺🇸🇮🇷Trump moves closer to a major war with Iran. It could come sooner, and be much bigger, than most recognize, sources tell me. My story on @axios https://t.co/cNcsMd2aQz
— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) February 18, 2026
The reveal comes a day after Iran’s dictator, Ali Khamenei, threatened to ‘send’ American aircraft carriers to the ‘bottom of the sea’ as the Trump administration was in talks with Iranian negotiators in Geneva, Switzerland. The blatant threat coincides with the Iranian military blockading the Strait of Hormuz for several hours and conducting war games in the world’s busiest oil shipping lane.
The Times of Israel reported, citing Hebrew-language Channel 12:
A military confrontation between the US and Iran could begin in the coming days and be an intensive, multi-week campaign, sources said Wednesday, despite ongoing diplomatic talks between Washington and Tehran.
Former IDF Military Intelligence chief Amos Yadlin suggested Wednesday that such a confrontation could be imminent.
“Last week I allowed myself to fly to the Munich Security Conference. I would think twice about flying [abroad from Israel] this weekend,” Yadlin told Channel 12 news on Wednesday, a day after a second round of nuclear talks was held in Geneva.
“We are much closer than we were before, but I remind you — a superpower does not go to war in a matter of days. There is a diplomatic path that must be exhausted,” said Yadlin, who now heads a national security consultancy.
Yadlin added that “many oppose the attack. The Pentagon is not clear what they want it to achieve. The president is very determined. The statement that all options are on the table is based on a credible military threat, which comes alongside the preparations off the coast of Iran and in the skies.”
Reports suggest that Iran is preparing for a possible U.S. strike on its nuclear weapons facilities.
BREAKING: Satellite images show Iran repairing and fortifying sites amid US tensions.
Satellite images show that Iran has recently built a concrete shield over a new facility at a sensitive military site and covered it in soil, experts say, advancing work amid tensions with the… pic.twitter.com/4y7qmzoeFu
— The Times of Israel (@TimesofIsrael) February 18, 2026
Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance admitted that Tehran has ignored the administration’s crucial demands. Vance “said Iran had failed to acknowledge core U.S. demands in talks here Tuesday, after which Washington said it had agreed to give Tehran two weeks to close the gaps between the sides,” The Wall Street Journal reported late Tuesday.
President Trump has made it clear that the regime has to abandon its nuclear weapons program to ‘make a deal’ with Washington.
BREAKING: USS Gerald R. Ford has been spotted off the coast of Morocco. pic.twitter.com/b5waa5jYri
— Faytuks Network (@FaytuksNetwork) February 18, 2026
The IDF chief of staff: armed forces “operating at a high operational-offensive speed”
With Khamenei continuing to hold public rallies, where regime loyalists renew the calls for “Death to” Israel and America, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) remains on high alert. On Sunday, the Israeli military’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, announced that the nation’s armed forces were “operating at a high operational-offensive speed.”
“We are in a multi-front campaign,” the military chief said in a speech, addressing senior reserve officers. “We will increase flexibility in organizing reserve duty days in order to better support your personnel and sharpen readiness.”
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Generally speaking if you are negotiating with Iran then you are loosing. Iran is a master at the stall game. If we get stalled out like so many other attempts then all of American foreign policy will be undone from here on and made worthless. Our enemies, Russia China the Democrats and N. Korea are watching. Hopefully we along with the Israelis have the best intelligence for what needs doing.
On the other hand, keeping Iran talking and allowing them to think they are stalling while preparing to drop the hammer… 🤔
That’s the other side of the “stall” coin.
And just like that the left will once again hate war.
Yup they loved it when they could fly Ukranian flags! And they were super annoyed when the Gaza war went to a ceasefire like they supposedly wanted.
I’d prefer a military strike a little closer to home – like Minnesota, but I’m silly that way.
a harder war to win when you have to pretend to care about civilian casualties of the antifablmplo crowd
it wont be a major war if we use the correct fire power
so while we hope there is no bloodshed
if its going to happen ..be swift and accurate and flood the zone
I am skeptical. Trump is trying to bully them, but it probably won’t work. The only reason to attack their nuclear facilities if there is solid intel they are restarting something – which there may be. Otherwise, the only attack that makes sense is striking the regime itself to force its collapse. That means killing all the Mullahs and decapitating the Revolutionary Guards in one devastating blow. And if Iran is really running out of water, the regime may collapse of its own accord, so waiting them out might be the best plan.
I tend to agree with you. We have seen this saber-rattling before, and not much has come of it. I expect this to be a replay of that.
Trump has given them two weeks to concede to the demands, so by past experiences I would say the shtf in about eight days.
Assume they are restarting whatever they can and are lying about any “agreement” they’ve supposedly agreed to. Ruthlessly eliminate the leadership infrastructure.
I am completely lost with what Trump is doing here. I’m not going to act like I understand at all. All is know is that the fall of the Iranian theorcratic regime would do endless good for the Iranian people and the whole world. It could be the lynch pin bringing down China and Russia as well. The Iranian people standing up to their brutal government deserve so much more support than what they are getting and an actual genocide (not a fake UN sponsored palestinian one) may very well be unfolding.
Well it can’t really be called a genocide since they mostly the same grouping as far as I can tell. I do think the term tragedy does apply.
Look in an ideal world I’d glass over the muslim countries regardless of collateral damage. If that incudes Europe and parts of NY, Michigan, and Minnesota than so be it. However, this is the real world. As such I don’t think a full war with boots on the ground is neccessary to achieve the goals which is termination of their nuclear and missile programs and ideally regime change.
What I would do is bomb their nuclear facilities once more. I’d also take out their weapons manufacturing and storage sites. I’d also go after the naval and air assets, such as they are. Finally I’d level revolutionary guard and government facilities. I’d leave it up to the populace to effect a regime change after this head start.
Couldn’t we just bomb those loyalist rallies and cull some of the hard liners?
We’ve also recently learned that we don’t have nearly enough anti-air missiles and cruise missiles for a really big war.
Sorry, where did “we” learn this lesson? 🤔
We get a news story about munitions supply levels every 4-6 months to coincide with DoD testimony before the.Armed Services committees.
We’ve recently ramped up production lines but handing over air defense missiles to Ukraine or expending them defending Israel and our own assets in the mid east has put a dent in them. Even simple things like 155mm artillery shells are running thin due to transfers. A serious bottleneck exists in making the guidance components. Patriot missile production is 600 per year and the DoD says we have about 25% of what we really need in stock. Similar shortfall in stocks for SM-6, LRSAM, JASSM and PrSM. Those estimates from DoD press release in Sept of ’25.
Our fixation on “just in time” nonsense helped cripple our ability to manufacture munitions and other items you need a lot of in a conventional conflict. And yeah, giving stuff away didn’t help. The GWOT template is no longer relevant.
It amazes me that anyone would think we’d broadcast an actual lack of ordnance.
The general public has absolutely no idea what our military supplies are– no matter how much ‘transparency’ is being touted.
Obviously, Trump is delaying so he has time to mass sufficient firepower in the region. After hearing that the UK may not let us use Diego Garcia and that we can’t use our Airbase in Turkey, I am sure the planners ran the numbers and decided that they needed another carrier group. The attack, this time will be to decapitate the leadership and neuter the Iranian Republican Guard. Once that these extremely loyalist forces are destroyed, the rest of tge government will topple. The regular Iranian military forces are not as dedicated to the cause. The key is identfying a group in country that we can we work with to step up into the power vacuum. Hopefully, we are already working with someone. Trump is very calculating – he waited months for the time be right in Venezuela. I do not see this being any kind of snatch and grab because it would be too risky and pointless. Having Israeli Human Intelligence will be a big plus for target acquisition.
sic the drones on those lunatics and lets see
it might be hard to zero in on the head leaders as they sit comfortably in qutar
Iran has been at war with the US for decades. Every once in a while, we admit it.
Obvious signs of a build up are appearing now. Lot of air activity than normal.
God save us.
The minute it starts, any good will we might have on the Iranian street will evaporate in a flash. Iraq, anyone?
Who’s organized in Iran? The Mad Mullah-ocracy and the Mojaheddin-e-Khalq, those same products born from Karl Marx playing bacha bazi on Muhammad ibn Abdallah, who in their own circles boast of being the first “revoltionary fighters” into the “nest of spies” back in 1979.
When I saw the MEK petitioning on the Washington Mall some years back, I told them they had their m-f-ing nerve to show their faces in the American capital, and that were it up to me, the lot of them would be rounded up and deported ASAP. It was gratifying to see the front of the pants of one of them darken as he retreated.
What’s wrong with you, America? I can understand giving asylum to 1989 Chinese who decided that a harsh government is worse than white people (rephrasing Kong Zi’s Li Ji), or ex-Muslims who have turned Christian; but MEK? Central Americans who name their kids after Lenin and Che who should’ve taken boats to Cuba? Good grief!
The Trump administration has no agency or decision making power in this situation?
Who are they ,- the German General Staff in 1914 – they’ve already drawn up the troop ttain schedule and they absolutely have to go to war because that’s the only plan and the plan can’t be stopped or changed by anything or anyone?
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