JERUSALEM: The United States could strike Iran as soon as this weekend, a US envoy said on Friday, following mounting threats from Washington and Israel.
"Could there be a strike this weekend? Absolutely," Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey and point man on Syria, who does not have a direct role on Iran, told podcast host Mario Nawfal.
President Donald Trump "is very clear. He's open and available and accessible to a deal and we've been at the table for months and months and months," Barrack said in an interview during a visit to the Gulf.
Trump, a business partner and friend of Barrack, played down the remarks when asked to confirm whether an attack could come this weekend.
"That was my ambassador? He's a pretty powerful man, I guess. If that's the case, I don't know anything about it," Trump told reporters in Florida.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces elections on Tuesday, has repeatedly vowed in recent days to topple Iran's clerical state, following two major bombing campaigns against it since last year.
Trump has also signalled an openness to resuming strikes after a prolonged diplomatic deadlock, although he earlier said this would not happen before the US congressional elections on Nov 3.
Barrack, in remarks that contradict Netanyahu's position, said the US was not seeking to topple the Islamic republic, a sworn enemy of the United States and Israel since a 1979 revolution overthrew the pro-Western shah.
"If you keep threatening the world, our allies, the Gulf, there will be a consequence. The consequence won't be regime change," Barrack said.
"The United States – the president of the United States – has said he's not interested in regime change," he added.
"The problem with regime change always is, what's the day-two scenario?"
© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd