President Donald Trump would not say Wednesday whether he has decided to order a U.S. strike on Iran, a move that Tehran warned anew would be greeted with stiff retaliation if it happens.
“I may do it, I may not do it,” Trump said in an exchange with reporters at the White House. “I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do.”
Trump added that it’s not “too late” for Iran to give up its nuclear program as he continues to weigh direct U.S. involvement in Israel’s military operations aimed at crushing Tehran’s nuclear program.
“Nothing’s too late,” Trump said. “I can tell you this. Iran’s got a lot of trouble.”
“Nothing is finished until it is finished,” Trump added. But “the next week is going to be very big— maybe less than a week.”
Trump also offered a terse response to Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s refusal to heed to his call for Iran to submit to an unconditional surrender.
“I say good luck,” Trump said.
Khamenei earlier Wednesday warned that any United States strikes targeting the Islamic Republic will “result in irreparable damage for them” and that his country would not bow to Trump’s call for surrender.
Trump said Tuesday the U.S. knows where Iran’s Khamenei is hiding as the the Israel-Iran conflict escalates but doesn’t want him killed — “for now.”
“He is an easy target, but is safe there - We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now,” Trump said.
Trump’s increasingly muscular comments toward the Iranian government come after he urged Tehran’s 9.5 million residents to flee for their lives as he cut short his participation in an international summit earlier this week to return to Washington for urgent talks with his national security team.
Earlier, Iran's supreme leader warned Trump of "irreparable harm" if the US joins Israeli attacks.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also said Iran would not surrender, following an earlier warning from the US president.
Israel hit two Iranian centrifuge production sites overnight, the UN's nuclear watchdog says, while Iran says it targeted Israel with a hypersonic missile.
After days of urging Iranians to return to negotiations, US President Donald Trump is considering whether the US should get directly involved in Israel's war against Iran.
Trump's emergency meeting in the Situation Room of the White House, which lasted an hour and 20 minutes yesterday, was held to discuss whether the US should join Israel to strike Iranian nuclear sites, CBS News reports.
The report says there is not a full agreement among Trump's closest advisers.
In yesterday's meeting of the US National Security Council, Trump and his advisers are reported to have discussed the possibility of striking Iran's nuclear sites. One potential target could be the uranium enrichment site at Fordo that is deep underground, says the BBC.
Prior to this, Trump spoke to the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, late on Tuesday, according to Axios. There's no readout of what they discussed or what was said.
Only the Americans have a bomb capable of destroying it. According to CBS News, the president's advisers are still divided about how to proceed. US and Israeli media say Trump followed the meeting with a call to Netanyahu, but it is not known what was discussed.
In the past three days, at least 30 US military tanker aircraft - used to refuel fighter jets and bombers - have been flown to Europe.
On Tuesday, in a flurry of social media posts, Trump demanded Iran's "unconditional surrender".
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, responded with a series of social media messages of his own last night - insisting his country would "never compromise with Zionists".
Israel targeting Iranian missile production facility near Tehran
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is targeting the Khojir missile production facility near the Iranian capital in its latest strikes, Iranian media is reporting, according to the Reuters news agency.
The facility is understood to be important to Iran's ballistic missile-related infrastructure, and was targeted by Israel in its strikes on Iran last October, reports the BBC.
The Israeli military says it has struck uranium centrifuge production sites and weapons factories in Iran overnight on the sixth day of its unprecedented offensive.
These strikes, carried out by "more than 50 aircraft," targeted "a centrifuge production facility in Tehran" as well as "several weapons manufacturing sites (...) including facilities producing raw materials and components used to assemble surface-to-surface missiles," the military says in a statement.
