Trump says he is close to decision on largest-yet attack on Iran

Donald Trump at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland on Wednesday. He set the US was all set for a ‘massive attack’ on Iran. Photograph: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Donald Trump at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland on Wednesday. He set the US was all set for a ‘massive attack’ on Iran. Photograph: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Trump says he is close to decision on largest-yet attack on Iran Escalation would follow oil passing $100 a barrel again and Houthi strikes on Saudi tankers in the Red Sea The US president, Donald Trump , has said he is close to deciding whether to launch “a massive” attack” against Iran, on a scale larger than strikes already witnessed during the months-long conflict with Tehran. Speaking to the Axios news site Trump said: “I am considering a massive attack. Bigger than ever before. I am close to making a decision. We are all set for it.” Trump made his remarks on Thursday as oil prices once again surged past the symbolic $100 for a barrel of Brent crude, the international benchmark – and amid indications the price could go higher still. The US president acknowledged that such a decision would have consequences but said he had not yet made a final determination, saying Israel “would join in two minutes if I ask them to” before adding: “We don’t need anybody.” Trump’s comments followed the earlier threat of “major military punishment” against Iran and the Houthis , after the Iran-backed Yemeni militia’s attacks on two Saudi Arabian oil tankers in the Red Sea. Underlining the sense of a region increasingly approaching an abyss, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, told the security council that the Middle East was being pushed to the “edge of the unimaginable” amid mounting fears over the trajectory of the conflict. “The situation is getting out of control. It is teetering on the edge of the unimaginable. The region is being pulled into an ever-widening circle of confrontation. One crisis feeds another. One escalation triggers the next,” Guterres told a security council meeting. “As this dynamic spreads, the political objectives are becoming increasingly obscured by the confrontation itself.” Amid growing evidence that a major escalation may be imminent, the UK announced that it was temporarily withdrawing diplomatic staff from Iran on Wednesday, and the German military announced on Thursday that it would withdraw two vessels from the Red Sea. In a separate development, Trump clarified on Thursday that an announced agreement that Saudi Arabia would get US help with its civilian nuclear programme would require the kingdom to normalise relations with Israel through the Abraham Accords, a move Saudi Arabia has long resisted until there is demonstrable movement on Palestinian rights and statehood. It emerged later that Trump had not spoken to Saudi Arabia about the new condition. The Houthi attacks threatened a second major maritime route connecting the Suez canal to the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. It also comes ami