Ex-Trump Official: ‘I Think We Are Gearing Up For a Strike’ On Iranian Nuclear Site

Brett McGurk, the former White House Coordinator for the Middle East, joined CNN on Wednesday to discuss the ongoing conflict between Iran and Israel and predicted that the U.S. is “gearing up for a strike” on an Iranian nuclear facility.

“So, what is your assessment right now? Should the U.S. stay on the sidelines?” asked CNN anchor Pamela Brown.

“I have to say what I’m seeing right now, I think we are gearing up for a strike, I think, on the Fordow facility, which we’ve been talking about all week. A US military strike,” replied McGurk, who served as the U.S. envoy to combat ISIS in the first Trump administration.

“And what makes you say that?” followed up Wolf Blitzer.

“Well, what I can see is that the military maneuvers are getting in place. I’ve been very struck by, since the president said unconditional surrender, that just leaves very little room for diplomacy,” McGurk replied, adding:

Here’s what I’d be thinking about if I was in the White House right now. Number one is timing. I think you don’t want to do a strike like this until everything’s in place, we’re not going to have everything in place probably for a few more days.

The Nimitz, which is a carrier strike group, is coming from the Indo-PACOM Theater. That’s probably going to take a few days to get there. You want to get that in place. I would try to use that time to see if Iran is prepared to take a diplomatic off-ramp.

Iran’s Fordow nuclear enrichment facility is buried deep inside a mountain, and many military experts believe that a U.S. “bunker-buster” missile would be needed to destroy or disable the facility, a capability Israel does not appear to have.

“While Israel has confronted nuclear threats before, it lacks the bunker-busting capability to neutralize Fordow. That responsibility now falls to the United States. The case for destroying Fordow is not only strong—it is urgent,” wrote Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis, (ret.) in an op-ed for Fox News on Tuesday.

Watch the clip above via CNN.