After Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected Donald Trump’s demand for unconditional surrender on Wednesday, the US president said his patience had run out, though he gave no clue as to what his next step would be.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Trump declined to say whether he had made any decision on whether to join Israel’s bombing campaign against arch-enemy Iran.
“I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do,” he said.
Trump said Iranian officials had reached out about negotiations including a possible meeting at the White House but “it’s very late to be talking,” he said.
“Unconditional surrender, that means I’ve had it.”
Asked for his response to Khamenei rejecting his demand to surrender, Trump said: “I say, good luck.”
Iranians jammed the highways out of the capital Tehran, fleeing from intensified Israeli airstrikes.
In its latest bombing run, Israel said its air force had destroyed Iran’s police headquarters.
“As we promised – we will continue to strike at symbols of governance and hit the ayatollah regime wherever it may be,” Defence Minister Israel Katz said.
Trump has veered from proposing a swift diplomatic end to the five-day-old war to suggesting the United States might join it. In social media posts on Tuesday, he mused about killing Khamenei, then demanded Iran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”
A source familiar with internal discussions said Trump and his team were considering options that included joining Israel in strikes against Iranian nuclear installations. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a Senate committee that the Pentagon was prepared to execute any order given by Trump.