White House sidesteps question on Iranian regime change
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt sidestepped a question Thursday over potential U.S. involvement in a regime change in Iran, as President Trump weighs his options on action amid the unrest in the Middle East.
Leavitt, during a press briefing, was asked whether assisting with plans for regime change in Tehran is at all on the table for Trump.
'The president's top priority right now is ensuring that Iran cannot obtain a nuclear weapon and providing peace and stability in the Middle East,' she replied.
When pressed on how close the president thinks Iran is to completing the production of a nuclear weapon, Leavitt said that at this point, it's up to the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to decide to move ahead with final stages.
'Iran has all that it needs to achieve a nuclear weapon. All they need is a decision from the supreme leader to do that,' she said. 'And it would take a couple of weeks to complete production of that weapon.'
Additionally, the press secretary told reporters that Trump will make a decision 'in the next two weeks' on whether or not to intervene in Israel's conflict with Iran.
The self-imposed deadline comes after the president pushed back on reporting from The Wall Street Journal that signaled he had already approved a plan to strike Tehran.
While Trump mulls U.S. involvement in the conflict, he said Tuesday that although Khamenei is an 'easy target,' there are no current plans to take him out — 'at least right now.'
As of Thursday, correspondence between the U.S. and Iran 'has continued,' according to the press secretary, who did not provide specifics about whether communications were direct or through intermediaries.
She also repeated the president's red lines on a diplomatic agreement, which are that Iran must agree to no enrichment of uranium and Tehran must not be able to achieve a nuclear weapon.
The president on Wednesday also dodged a question about whether he's moving closer to ordering a strike against Iranian nuclear facilities.
'I may do it, I may not do it,' he said at the time.
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