Senior advisers to President Donald Trump would prefer Israel strike Iran before the United States launches an assault on the country, according to two people familiar with ongoing discussions, Politico reports.

These Trump administration officials are privately arguing that an Israeli attack would trigger Iran to retaliate, helping muster support from American voters for a US strike.

 “There’s thinking in and around the administration that the politics are a lot better if the Israelis go first and alone and the Iranians retaliate against us, and give us more reason to take action,” said one of the people familiar with discussions.

This is a serious effort, but the thinking among those closest to the president is that “we’re going to bomb them,” according to the first person familiar with discussions.

Iranian and US negotiators will hold a new round of talks in Geneva, Switzerland on Thursday to discuss options for resolving Iran’s nuclear issue.

But this attempt at a diplomatic settlement may be the last, and if it fails, Trump could launch a full-scale US-Israeli operation against Iran, sources say, according to Axios.