The likelihood of a US strike on Iran has increased significantly in recent days, Israeli television reported Wednesday, as the Islamic Republic threatened that it was ready to respond “decisively” to any action taken against it on the 17th day of deadly protests that have swept the troubled nation.

According to Channel 12 news, Washington’s shift toward the possibility of striking Iran came about after US President Donald Trump held a lengthy discussion with his advisers on the matter on Tuesday.

An American source quoted by the outlet said that as “the bloodshed in Iran is continuing,” it was likely that Trump “will have to do something within a day or two at the latest.”

According to the New York Times, Trump was presented with several options in recent days, including new strikes on Iran’s nuclear program — which the US joined Israel in targeting last June — or on its ballistic missile program.

Other options included striking the Islamic Republic’s internal security infrastructure, or launching cyberattacks, the US daily said, noting that these two options were “more likely” than targeting nuclear or missile sites.

Officials cited by the newspaper said it would likely be “at least several days” until the course of action decided upon by the Trump administration becomes apparent.

Trump has been openly threatening to intervene in Iran for days, though without giving specifics, as protests have continued unabated across all of Iran’s 31 provinces. The protests began as economic rallies on December 28, but rapidly ballooned into mass anti-regime demonstrations.

But on Wednesday, the US president said Washington had been informed that the killing of protesters had ceased, and that the Islamic Republic would not proceed with executions as feared.

“We have been notified pretty strongly — but we’ll find out what that all means… We’ve been told that the killing in Iran is stopping, and it’s stopped,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office without elaborating on who passed along that message to Tehran.

However, he avoided saying definitively that military action was off the table, while refusing to specify who had informed him that the killings had ceased when pressed by journalists.

“We have been informed by very, very important sources on the other side, and they said the killing has stopped, and the executions won’t take place,” Trump said.

“There was supposed to be a lot of executions today, and [those] won’t take place,” The added. “We’ve been told on good authority, and I hope it’s true, [but] who knows.”

Trump said footage of protesters in body bags is from previous days, suggesting that the extrajudicial killings have ceased more recently.

“We’re going to watch and see what the process is, but we were given a very good statement by people [who] are aware of what’s going on.”

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, had been in touch with Trump’s top aide Steve Witkoff over the........

© The Times of Israel