Netanyahu seeks support for Iran strikes as Trump mulls US attack 'within two weeks'
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he welcomed "all help" with destroying Iran's nuclear sites, while Trump said he will decide whether to attack Iran within the next two weeks due to a "substantial" chance of negotiations. PHOTO:REUTERS
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he welcomed "all help" with destroying Iran's nuclear sites, nearly a week into major Israeli air raids on the Islamic republic.
Israel is "capable of striking all of Iran's nuclear facilities" but "all help is welcome", Netanyahu told public broadcaster Kan, also saying that US President Donald Trump "will do what is good for for the United States, and I will do what is good for the State of Israel".
Trump will make Iran war decision 'within next two weeks'
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.
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.
Iran denied it would do so.
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 US president had said on Wednesday that "I may do it, I may not do it" when asked if he would take military action against Iran.
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.
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.
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Iran had/has two major nuclear enrichment facilities, one at Natanz, that Israel struck with some effect in the ongoing war with Iran, and at Fordow near Qom, which is far more sophisticated and secure where enrichment levels are suspected to have been breached. When Iran was reluctant to enter negotiations, Trump declared a sixty-day window for Iran to agree to a deal proposed by the US, else the cost to Iran would be heavy and unbearable in military terms. Five rounds down and sixth on the anvil when it was more than likely that Iran was coming around to agree on most terms, Israel attacked Iran. It was the sixty-first day from the day Trump had announced the window of opportunity. Coincidence? Or a well deliberated execution? I don't think it needs much thought. What has followed since June 13 has been a conflagration ready to envelop the whole region unless handled with care. Both sides rain missiles on each other and wreak untold pain and misery. Soon, civilian populations will be the victims to test and breach their threshold of tolerance and of the two societies and their political masters. In a slugfest, one who can absorb more is usually the one to prevail. Mohammad Ali, the late Boxing Champion, perfected this art and established a psychological edge over his opponent by inviting him to give him body blows. The national character of Iran and its thousands of years of civilisational history and the size of its population hold it in better stead than Israel which is still young as a nation even if it boasts of a history of suffering over centuries. In the Iranian character, death is celebrated albeit with remorse; in the Israeli experience suffering and victimhood is emphasised to gain empathy. These two characteristics will hugely define the ultimate victor in the civilisational sense. Either Iran will now run out of its missiles or Israel will breach its threshold of pain. 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Regime change, the deeper or implicit political objective, is a more complicated and extended effect of the war and where might it first happen, Iran or Israel, is moot. What is of essence here is that Israel and its supporters are now loudly calling for the US to intervene on Israel's behalf; that Israel with its existing capacity cannot complete the mission of eliminating Iran's nuclear programme. Iran's resilience and unexpectedly ferocious response on an overly sensitive Israeli psyche to the losses amidst their population centers is the key to shout for the patron to come to the rescue. Israel stands exposed with its civilisational inadequacies. This is Iran's great achievement. Similarly, were Trump to jump in and directly attack Iranian assets it shall not only be an act of desperation but will also puncture Trump's long held position of withdrawing from forever wars. Iraq is what he always refers to as an example. Iran will still survive despite Fordow but what carnage may ensue at the US installations in the Middle East will only expand, engorge and envelop all the Middle East which will be rendered chaotic, explosive and uncontrollable for years to come. Iraq, Libya and Syria stand as sorry examples of such ill-thought adventurism. More likely better sense will prevail despite Netanyahu's Israel.
