US official says Israel pressing for American strikes on Iran, but Trump ‘really does not want to do it’

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February 3, 2026 1:52 pm

President Donald Trump listens to a question from a reporter as he speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Senior Israeli officials, including IDF chief Eyal Zamir, who visited Washington over the weekend, have been pushing the US to strike Iran, but US President Donald Trump is reluctant, Axios reports.

The report says that Zamir briefed Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Dan Caine on Israel’s offensive and defensive plans in the event of war with Iran.

“It’s safe to say that nothing came out of that meeting to change his or the president’s mind on attacking Iran,” Axios quotes a US official as saying, referring to Caine and Trump.

“It’s really the Israelis who want a strike. The president is just not there,” the official says.

Another senior US official says Trump “really does not want to do it.”

The report quotes three senior Trump advisers as saying that while the president initially favored strikes during the mass protests in Iran, he now feels that launching a military move wouldn’t be the right way to go. One of them says that skepticism holds for many in Trump’s close orbit.

However, a senior official from one of the mediating countries tells Axios that Trump’s attitude could change if Iran doesn’t show willingness to meet US demands.

“If Iran doesn’t come to the talks on Friday with tangible things, it could find itself very quickly in a very bad situation,” the official says.

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