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• Trump says Tehran has ‘10 days’ to make a deal with Washington, or ‘bad things will happen’
• Kremlin urges restraint; Germany pulls troops out of Iraq; Poland tells citizens to leave Iran
WASHINGTON: War clouds are looming over the Middle East, as US warplanes and aircraft carriers head toward Iran in preparation for possible military action.
Renewing his threats towards Tehran, President Donald Trump indicated on Thursday that the country has around 10 days to reach a deal with Washington, or “bad things will happen”.
CNN and CBS reported on Wednesday that the US military would be ready to launch strikes against Iran as early as this weekend, though Trump has reportedly not made a final decision yet.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt warned on Wednesday there were “many reasons and arguments that one could make for a strike against Iran”.
“Iran would be very wise to make a deal with President Trump,” she said.
Trump’s comments came shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued his own warning to Iran saying, “If the ayatollahs make a mistake and attack us, they will receive a response they cannot even imagine”.
The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, reported that Trump had been briefed on his military options with “all of them designed to maximise damage”, including a campaign to “kill scores of Iranian political and military leaders, with the goal of overthrowing the government”, unnamed US officials told the newspaper.
The US has, meanwhile, been building up its military forces near Iran, including warships, fighter jets, and refuelling aircraft, laying the foundation for a potentially sustained campaign against Iran — should Trump give the order.
Washington has ordered a second aircraft carrier to the region, with the first, the USS Abraham Lincoln and its nearly 80 aircraft, positioned about 700 kilometres (435 miles) from the Iranian coast as of Sunday, satellite images showed.
Speaking at the inaugural Board of Peace meeting, Trump even praised the “magnificent” B-2 bombers that “totally decimated the nuclear potential” of Iran last summer, saying they helped bring peace to the Middle East for the first time in 3,000 years.
Iran has also sought to display its own military might, with its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps holding war games earlier this week in the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s joint exercise with Russia came days into an extended series of Iranian naval drills in the Gulf of Oman, with Iranian state television showing special forces units deployed on helicopters and ships.
Amid the escalating warnings, Poland on Thursday ordered all its citizens in Iran to “leave immediately”.
Germany meanwhile moved troops out of northern Iraq, reducing its footprint to the minimum necessary to keep its base there functional, citing escalating regional tensions.
Dozens of German soldiers have been relocated away from the base in Erbil, capital of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region.
Russia has also called for restraint, with a Kremlin spokesperson saying, “We are currently witnessing an unprecedented escalation of tension in the region, but we still hope that political and diplomatic means and negotiations will continue to prevail in the search for a settlement”.
Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2026
