Trump keeps world guessing on war decision
US President Donald Trump speaks during a swearing-in ceremony for the new US ambassador to China, former US Senator David Perdue, at the White House in Washington, DC, US on May 7, 2025. Photo: Reuters/ File
US President Donald Trump said Thursday he will decide whether to join Israel's strikes on Iran within the next two weeks as there is still a "substantial" chance of negotiations to end the conflict.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt read out a message from Trump, saying there had been "a lot of speculation" about whether the United States would be "directly involved" in the conflict.
"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," Trump said in the statement.
The announcement could lower the temperature and give space for diplomacy, after a fevered few days in which Trump said Iran's leader was an "easy target" and vowed that Tehran could never have a nuclear weapon.
But Leavitt also told reporters that Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in the space of a "couple of weeks."
"Iran has all that it needs to achieve a nuclear weapon. All they need is a decision from the supreme leader to do that, and it would take a couple of weeks to complete the production of that weapon," she said.
Leavitt would not give details of what had led Trump to believe that negotiations with Iran were possible, but denied he was putting off a decision.
"If there's a chance for diplomacy the president's always going to grab it, but he's not afraid to use strength as well," Leavitt said.
The spokeswoman said "correspondence has continued" between Washington and Tehran when asked about reports that Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff had been in touch with Iran's foreign minister.
Trump held his third meeting in three days in the White House's highly secured Situation Room on Thursday as he continued to mull whether to join Israel's bombing campaign.
The White House meanwhile urged Trump supporters to "trust" the president as he decides whether to act.
A number of key figures in his "Make America Great Again" movement, including commentator Tucker Carlson and former aide Steve Bannon, have vocally opposed US strikes on Iran.
Trump's promise to extract the United States from its "forever wars" in the Middle East played a role in his 2016 and 2024 election wins.
"Trust in President Trump. President Trump has incredible instincts," Leavitt said.
Meanwhile, 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 with no sign yet of an exit strategy from either side.
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".
As darkness fell on Thursday evening, Iranian media reported air defences engaging "hostile targets" in northern Tehran. 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.
Netanyahu wants Iran weakened enough to be forced into fundamental concessions on permanently abandoning its nuclear enrichment, its ballistic missile programme and its support for militant groups across the region, the sources said.
Three diplomats told Reuters that Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi have spoken by phone several times since last week. In an apparent reference to the US, Iran's Supreme National Security Council said on Thursday it would use a different strategy if a "third party" joined Israel in the war.
STRAIT OF HORMUZ THREAT
Earlier, Israel said it had struck Iran's Natanz, Isfahan and Khondab nuclear sites. It initially said it had also hit Bushehr, site of Iran's only functioning nuclear power plant, but a spokesperson later said it was a mistake to have said this.
An Iranian diplomat told Reuters Bushehr was not hit and Israel was engaged in "psychological warfare" by discussing it. Any attack on the plant, near Arab neighbours and housing Russian technicians, is viewed as risking nuclear disaster.
On Thursday, Iran's Revolutionary Guards said it had launched combined missile and drone attacks at military and industrial sites linked to Israel's defence industry in Haifa and Tel Aviv.
Israel reported missiles launched from Iran towards its territory. Iran has been weighing its wider options in responding to the biggest security challenge since its 1979 revolution. A member of the Iranian Parliament's National Security Committee Presidium, Behnam Saeedi, told the semi-official Mehr news agency Iran could consider closing the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of daily global oil consumption passes.
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