The White House said on Thursday that President Donald Trump will make a decision on whether the US will get involved in the Israel-Iran conflict in the next two weeks.
Citing a message from Trump, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters: “Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.”
Leavitt told a regular briefing that Trump was interested in pursuing a diplomatic solution with Iran, but his top priority was ensuring that Iran could not obtain a nuclear weapon.
She said any deal would have to prohibit enrichment of uranium by Tehran and eliminate Iran’s ability to achieve a nuclear weapon.
“The president is always interested in a diplomatic solution …he is a peacemaker in chief. He is the peace through strength president. And so if there’s a chance for diplomacy, the president’s always going to grab it,” Leavitt said. “But he’s not afraid to use strength as well I will add.”
Leavitt declined to say if Trump would seek congressional authorization for any strikes on Iran. She said Washington remained convinced that Iran had never been closer to obtaining a nuclear weapon.
Israel bombed nuclear targets in Iran on Thursday and Iran fired missiles and drones at Israel after hitting an Israeli hospital overnight, as a week-old air war escalated and neither side showed any sign of an exit strategy.
Following the strike that damaged the Soroka medical centre in Israel’s southern city of Beersheba, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tehran’s “tyrants” would pay the “full price”.
“Are we targeting the downfall of the regime? That may be a result, but it’s up to the Iranian people to rise for their freedom,” Netanyahu said. “Freedom requires these subjugated people to rise up, and it’s up to them, but we may create conditions that will help them do it.”
Defence Minister Israel Katz said the military had been instructed to intensify strikes on strategic-related targets in Tehran in order to eliminate the threat to Israel and destabilise the “Ayatollah regime”.
Israel’s sweeping campaign of airstrikes aims to do more than destroy Iran’s nuclear centrifuges and missile capabilities. It seeks to shatter the foundations of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s government and leave it near collapse, Israeli, Western and regional officials said.
Leavitt said Trump had been briefed on the Israeli operation on Thursday and Iran would face grave consequences if it did not agree to halt its work on a nuclear weapon.
Iran has been weighing wider options in responding to the biggest security challenge since its 1979 revolution.
Trump has kept the world guessing on possible US involvement in the war, veering from proposing a swift diplomatic solution to suggesting the US might join the fighting. On Wednesday, he said nobody knew what he would do. A day earlier he mused on social media about killing Khamenei, then demanded Iran’s unconditional surrender.
Three diplomats told Reuters that Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi have spoken by phone several times since Israel began its strikes last week.