Trump confirms talks with Tehran, is reportedly mulling raids by troops on Iranian facilities

NYT says options under consideration aimed at causing further damage to nuclear and missile programs, weakening Khamenei; report notes ‘unclear’ who would run Iran if supreme leader fell

By Jacob Magid,

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Agencies and ToI Staff 30 January 2026, 1:18 pm

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US President Donald Trump on Friday confirmed he has had dialogue with Iran, as The New York Times reported he was considering potential raids by American troops on facilities within the Islamic Republic.

“We have a lot of very big, very powerful ships sailing to Iran right now, and it would be great if we didn’t have to use them,” Trump told reporters, referring to the US military assets moving to the region.

Asked if he has any conversations with Iran in the last few days or if he is planning to, Trump responded, “I have had, and I am planning on it.”

Trump has threatened strikes over Iran’s deadly crackdown on mass anti-regime protests this month. Rights groups have verified thousands of deaths, but estimates of the total number of people killed range into the tens of thousands.

Trump has also warned the US will strike Iran unless it agrees to a deal halting its contentious nuclear program, which the US and Israel targeted in June during the 12-day war.

Amid the tensions, Trump has been presented with additional military options for attacking Iran, to cause further damage to the regime’s nuclear and missile programs as well as weaken Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, The New York Times reported.

This handout image from the US Navy shows an EA-18G Growler launching from the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Indian Ocean on Jan. 23, 2026. (Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Daniel Kimmelman/U.S. Navy via AP)

Citing US officials, the newspaper said among the options being considered are potential raids by US troops, such as sending commandos to nuclear facilities that were not damaged during the 12-day war in June, though Trump has yet to make a decision on whether to attack the country.

Another operation would include several strikes against the Islamic Republic’s leadership with the aim of creating the chaos needed for Iranian security forces to oust Khamenei, the report said, while adding it was “unclear” who would run the country instead in such a situation, or whether they would be more amenable to good ties with the West.

Israel, meanwhile, is pressing for a joint operation to go after Iran’s ballistic missile program, which has largely recovered since June, officials told The Times.

Israeli soldiers and rescue team work amid the rubble of residential buildings destroyed by an Iranian missile strike that killed several people, in Beersheba, Israel, June 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

All the options go beyond those that were presented two weeks ago to the US president, according to the officials.

The officials said that Trump is adopting a similar approach to Iran as the one he took toward Venezuela by building up forces nearby while threatening the country’s leader to accept his demands or face military action.

However, one of the officials said that the US president and his top aides understand that an operation against the Islamic Republic would be far more risky than the operation in Venezuela.

The report said officials are doubtful that Tehran will accept Washington’s negotiating terms, which include ending uranium enrichment and support to its terror proxies across the Middle East, and limits to its ballistic missile program — which would severely limit its ability to carry out attacks on Israel.

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran, protesters take to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)

A potential directive from Trump on a strike is expected in the coming days, once all of the US military assets heading to the Middle East are in place, a senior US official told Channel 12 on Thursday. Iran has repeatedly threatened to strike American targets in the Middle East and Israel if the US attacks.

Israeli officials do not believe that a limited US strike will bring down the Iranian regime, and Trump shares their assessment, according to Channel 12. Therefore, they assessed that Trump will focus a potential attack on physical Iranian assets, especially its nuclear and missile programs.

Efforts are being made to diffuse the tension, with Saudi Arabia passing messages between Iran and the US in an effort to de-escalate the situation, according to Axios. In addition to the Saudi push against an attack, Israel has identified massive pressure from Turkey, Qatar and Oman on the White House to allow them to mediate between Washington and Tehran to find a diplomatic solution, said Channel 12.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian speaks during a ceremony commemorating the death anniversary of IRGC commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani, in Tehran, January 1, 2026. (AP/Vahid Salemi)

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian he is willing to help “de-escalate” tensions between Tehran and Washington, in a phone call on Friday, his office said.

Erdogan “emphasized that Turkey is ready to assume a facilitating role between Iran and the United States to de-escalate the tensions and resolve the issues,” it said, noting the pair had discussed the “escalating military tensions in the region.”

The call came as Tehran’s top diplomat, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, was in Turkey for top-level talks on the matter.