US President Donald Trump has reportedly been presented with several scenarios, including a military option to take out Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his son Mojtaba, who is seen as a potential successor.
“They have something for every scenario. One scenario takes out the ayatollah and his son and the mullahs,” a senior Trump adviser told Axios. “What the President chooses no one knows. I don't think he knows.”
A second source also confirmed to the US outlet that a plan to kill Mr Khamenei and his son had been presented to Mr Trump several weeks ago.
“Trump is keeping his options open. He could decide on an attack at any moment,” another adviser said.
Tension remains high amid military postings by the US and Iranian naval exercises and drills in the strategic Strait of Hormuz this week.
The last round of talks between the US and Iran was held in Geneva on Tuesday. After the negotiations, US officials said that “progress was made, but there are still a lot of details to discuss”. On Thursday, Mr Trump gave Iran a deadline of between 10 and 15 days to come to an agreement.
At the heart is the issue of uranium enrichment. Israel and the US have said they want Iran to cease all enrichment activity and dismantle plants. Iran insists on retaining some fuel-making capacity for peaceful purposes.
Mr Trump is considering a proposal that would allow Iran “token” nuclear enrichment as long as its unable to acquire a weapon, Axios said. The report added that both Omani and Qatari mediators had told Iran and the US that a deal must allow both sides a claim to victory and should be one accepted by both Israel and Gulf states.
“It should be a win-win deal. This is the difficult part. It needs to accommodate both sides' interests and concerns,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview with MS Now on Friday.
US Middle East Steve Witkoff, who has been involved in the several rounds of talks, said Mr Trump was “curious” as to why Iran has not yet yielded to the mounting US pressure.
“The President asked me that this morning, and he’s – I don’t wanna use the word frustrated … because he understands he’s got plenty of alternatives, but … he’s curious as to why they haven’t, I don’t wanna use the word capitulated, but why they haven’t capitulated,” he said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday.
The US President has been warning about the possibility of strikes for weeks, first amid Iran's crackdown on a nationwide protest movement, and then as Washington and Tehran once again came to the negotiating table to discuss the Iranian nuclear programme.
Domestic pressure
Students held protests at several Iranian universities at the start of a new term on Saturday, some clashing with pro-government groups, according to local news agencies and posts on social media.
The protests coincided with ceremonies traditionally held after 40 days to mourn those killed by security forces during last month's anti-government demonstrations, which saw thousands lose their lives in the worst domestic unrest since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.
A video purportedly showed rows of marchers at Tehran's Sharif University of Technology condemning Mr Khamenei as a “murderous leader”, and calling for Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran's toppled shah, to be a new monarch.
State-affiliated news agencies such as SNN carried videos of clashes, with protesters allegedly injuring volunteer student Basij militia by throwing rocks at Iran's top engineering university. Pro-government Basij members often assist security forces in quelling protests.
Iranian authorities have repeatedly described the unrest as part of foreign-backed efforts to destabilise the country and claimed that protesters were working with the US and Israel.
Families of the dead have reported pressure from Iranian security forces demanding that they describe their dead relatives as members of the security personnel, including the Basij, in exchange for the release of their bodies from hospitals and morgues for burial.
