Trump to make Iran war decision in 'next two weeks'
U.S. 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 talks to end the conflict.
Trump's move to hit the pause button could open up space for diplomacy, after days of fevered questions about whether or not he would order U.S. military action against Tehran.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt read out a message from Trump after what she called "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.
Trump has set two-week deadlines that subsequently shifted on a series of other tough topics in the past, including the Russia-Ukraine war -- but Leavitt 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.
At the same time Leavitt reinforced the sense of urgency, telling 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.
Iran denies seeking a nuclear weapon, saying that its program is for peaceful purposes.
- 'Trust in President Trump' -
Trump said on Wednesday that Iran had asked to send officials to the White House to negotiate a deal on its nuclear program and end the conflict with Israel -- although Iran denied making any such request.
Washington and Tehran had continued "correspondence" since Israel first struck Iran last week, Leavitt said.
She said however that there were currently no plans for Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff to join European diplomats meeting Iran's foreign minister in Geneva on Friday.
Trump met his top national security team in the White House Situation Room for the third day in a row on Thursday. He will have similar meetings daily until he leaves for a NATO summit in the Netherlands on Monday, the White House said.
His two-week deadline comes after a tense few days in which Trump publicly mulled joining Israel's strikes on Iran and said that Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was an "easy target."
Trump had spent weeks pursuing a diplomatic path towards a deal to replace the nuclear deal with Iran that he tore up in his first term in 2018.
But he has since backed Israel's attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities and military top brass, while mulling whether to join in.
A key issue is that the United States is the only country with the huge "bunker buster" bombs that could destroy Iran's crucial Fordo Iranian nuclear enrichment plant.
"We have capabilities that no other country on this planet possesses," said Leavitt.
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 U.S. 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.
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Ya Libnan
2 hours ago
- Ya Libnan
Iran may produce a nuclear bomb if the US attacks it or Khamanei is killed, NYT
File : Fordów uranium enrichment facility which is embedded in a mountain inside Iran and which Israel wants the US to bomb but president Trump is not convinced it can be done and decided to take 2 weeks to make the decision on whether to join Israel in the war 'The US should let Israel finish the job it started. PM Netanyahu says Israel is capable of finishing the job. President Trump claims to be a peacemaker not a warmonger . The last thing the US should do is join Israel in the war . This will be much worse than the war on Iraq in 2003', analysts say and the US never won any war since WWII A missile on display in Tehran in February. American spy agencies believe that it could take several months, and up to a year, for Iran to make a nuclear weapon. U.S. intelligence agencies continue to believe that Iran has yet to decide whether to make a nuclear bomb even though it has developed a large stockpile of the enriched uranium necessary for it to do so, according to intelligence and other American officials. That assessment has not changed since the intelligence agencies last addressed the question of Iran's intentions in March, the officials said, even as Israel has attacked Iranian nuclear facilities. Senior U.S. intelligence officials said that Iranian leaders were likely to shift toward producing a bomb if the American military attacked the Iranian uranium enrichment site Fordo or if Israel killed Iran's supreme leader. The question of whether Iran has decided to complete the work of building a bomb is irrelevant in the eyes of many Iran hawks in the United States and Israel, who say Tehran is close enough to represent an existential danger to Israel. But it has long been a flashpoint in the debate over policy toward Iran and has flared again as President Trump weighs whether to bomb Fordo. White House officials held an intelligence briefing on Thursday and announced that Mr. Trump would make his decision within the next two weeks. At the White House meeting, John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director, told officials that Iran was very close to having a nuclear weapon. Karoline Leavitt, the White House spokeswoman, said later at a news briefing that Iran had the material it needed to make a bomb. 'Let's be very clear: Iran has all that it needs to achieve a nuclear weapon,' she said. 'All they need is a decision from the supreme leader to do that and it would take a couple weeks to complete the production of that weapon.' Some American officials said those new assessments echoed material provided by Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, which believes that Iran can achieve a nuclear weapon in 15 days. While some American officials find the Israeli estimate credible, others emphasized that the U.S. intelligence assessment remained unchanged, and American spy agencies believe that it could take several months, and up to a year, for Iran to make a weapon. Intelligence assessments are often drafted in a way that allows policymakers to draw different conclusions. And many intelligence officials believe that the reason Iran has accumulated such a large arsenal of uranium is to have the ability to move toward making a bomb quickly. Some officials believe Israeli assessments have been colored by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's desire to gain American support for his military campaign against Iran. Mr. Netanyahu said on Thursday, however, that Israel could achieve its goals alone when it came to Iran's nuclear facilities. None of the new assessments on the timeline to get a bomb are based on newly collected intelligence, according to multiple officials. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a religious ruling, or fatwa, in 2003 that has prevented the country from developing nuclear weapons. That is 'right now holding,' a senior intelligence official said, adding that the Israeli assessment that Iran was 15 days away was alarmist. Mr. Netanyahu has repeatedly warned over the years that Iran is close to a nuclear weapon. And since Israel began its attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities, Israeli officials have warned that Iran was weeks away from having the components for a bomb. Mr. Netanyahu has not been specific on the time frame. 'In recent months, Iran has taken steps that it has never taken before, steps to weaponize this enriched uranium, and if not stopped, Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a very short time,' Mr. Netanyahu said. 'It could be a year. It could be within a few months, less than a year. This is a clear and present danger to Israel's very survival.' Still, American officials acknowledge that the large stockpile poses a threat. Testifying before Congress on June 10, Gen. Michael E. Kurilla, the head of Central Command, said Iran's nuclear stockpile and available centrifuges could allow it to produce weapons-grade material in a week, and were enough to make 10 weapons in three weeks if the government decided 'to sprint to a nuclear weapon.' In testimony in March, Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, noted that the Iranian stockpile was at a high, a level that she said was unprecedented for a nonnuclear state. Officials said Ms. Gabbard's comments remained accurate and were in line with the idea that Iran is gathering the components of a weapon. Iran's stockpile is enriched to 60 percent. To make a bomb, it would need to be enriched further, to 90 percent. Enriching uranium means reducing the percentage of naturally occurring uranium, U-238, and increasing the percentage of a lighter isotope, U-235, that can sustain a nuclear reaction. But producing a weapon requires more than uranium. Iran would also have to make a bomb, and potentially miniaturize it to place on a warhead. While the United States and Israel believe that Iran has the expertise to build a bomb, there is no intelligence that it has set out to do that. U.S. intelligence believes that Iran could potentially shorten the timeline if it pursued a cruder weapon that might not be able to be miniaturized and put on a missile. Such a cruder weapon might be more akin to the bomb that the United States dropped on Hiroshima, which was nearly 10,000 pounds and 10 feet long and had to be dropped from a plane, rather than delivered on a missile. Senior officials, including Vice President JD Vance, have said that new information has come in since the U.S. intelligence position was made public in March. But officials said that information from Israel and other sources was not new intelligence about the program or Iranian intent to build a bomb, but rather new analysis of existing work. THE NEW YORK TIMES
Ya Libnan
3 hours ago
- Ya Libnan
Trump still pursuing diplomacy with Iran, will make a decision ‘within 2 weeks on whether to join Israel'
Trump still pursuing diplomacy with Iran, will make a decision 'within two weeks' on whether to join Israel' President Trump will make a decision 'within two weeks' on whether to join Israel's war against Iran to eliminate its nuclear program, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday. Citing the 'chance for substantial negotiations' with Iran, Trump is leaving the door open to a diplomatic solution in the coming days that could avert a major escalation in the Middle East. Trump met with his top national security team in the Situation Room on Thursday — the third such meeting in three days. He's seriously considering joining the war, but wants to ensure three things are true, U.S. officials say: 'I have a message directly from the president: 'Based on the fact that there is a chance for substantial negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision on whether or not to go within the next two weeks,'' Leavitt said at Thursday's White House briefing. As Trump has deliberated in recent days over whether to join the war, special envoy Steve Witkoff has maintained direct communication with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, as Axios reported Wednesday. The foreign ministers of France, Germany and the U.K., along with the European Union's foreign policy chief, are set to meet with Araghchi in Geneva on Friday, a source with knowledge of the situation said. AXIOS
Nahar Net
6 hours ago
- Nahar Net
Trump to make Iran war decision in 'next two weeks'
U.S. 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 talks to end the conflict. Trump's move to hit the pause button could open up space for diplomacy, after days of fevered questions about whether or not he would order U.S. military action against Tehran. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt read out a message from Trump after what she called "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. Trump has set two-week deadlines that subsequently shifted on a series of other tough topics in the past, including the Russia-Ukraine war -- but Leavitt 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. At the same time Leavitt reinforced the sense of urgency, telling 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. Iran denies seeking a nuclear weapon, saying that its program is for peaceful purposes. - 'Trust in President Trump' - Trump said on Wednesday that Iran had asked to send officials to the White House to negotiate a deal on its nuclear program and end the conflict with Israel -- although Iran denied making any such request. Washington and Tehran had continued "correspondence" since Israel first struck Iran last week, Leavitt said. She said however that there were currently no plans for Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff to join European diplomats meeting Iran's foreign minister in Geneva on Friday. Trump met his top national security team in the White House Situation Room for the third day in a row on Thursday. He will have similar meetings daily until he leaves for a NATO summit in the Netherlands on Monday, the White House said. His two-week deadline comes after a tense few days in which Trump publicly mulled joining Israel's strikes on Iran and said that Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was an "easy target." Trump had spent weeks pursuing a diplomatic path towards a deal to replace the nuclear deal with Iran that he tore up in his first term in 2018. But he has since backed Israel's attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities and military top brass, while mulling whether to join in. A key issue is that the United States is the only country with the huge "bunker buster" bombs that could destroy Iran's crucial Fordo Iranian nuclear enrichment plant. "We have capabilities that no other country on this planet possesses," said Leavitt. 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 U.S. 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.
