Before the strikes, Trump’s national security team was split into three camps over how to proceed before a Democratic-controlled Congress takes office on Jan 3, the Wall Street Journal and NBC News reported. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, US Central Command chief Adm. Brad Cooper and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed to resume operations targeting Iranian nuclear sites, including the underground Pickaxe Mountain facility, and energy infrastructure. Vice President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Gulf allies favored Qatar-mediated talks to end the $47 billion war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent backed tighter sanctions and maintaining the US naval blockade.

Trump told reporters Thursday he would soon decide whether to “go further and certify it,” adding that “I would rather not destroy the rest of the country if possible, but maybe I will have to” and estimating Iran would need 25 years to rebuild. In Tehran, Ebrahim Azizi, chairman of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said Friday that Iran “won’t let Trump walk away from the region without paying a price & reparations” and threatened a “decisive response” against Israel.