Lucy Clarke-Billings
BBC News
US President Donald Trump will decide whether or not the US gets directly involved in the Iran-Israel conflict within the next two weeks, the White House has said.
In a White House press briefing, Press secretary Karoline Leavitt delivered a message directly from Trump:
“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.”
Earlier, Iran’s deputy foreign minister told the BBC it would cause “hell” in the region if the US got involved, adding: “This is not America’s war.”
The news comes 24 hours after Trump said he had not made up his mind on joining the conflict.
Asked what the message was for “everyday Trump supporters” who have concerns about US involvement, Leavitt said to “trust in President Trump”.
She added that the president’s “top priority” is ensuring that Iran does not successfully construct a nuclear weapon.
The press secretary has so far repeatedly declined to discuss “hypotheticals”, including on whether Iranian officials could come to the White House, or whether Trump would seek approval from Congress over any US involvement.
Trump and his administration have sought to maintain an air of strategic ambiguity – not revealing much publicly about their thinking or potential courses of action.
“I may do it,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “I may not do it.”
The administration has maintained it believes that Iran has “never been closer” to successfully building a nuclear weapon.
Trump has dismissed intelligence assessments – including some given by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard in Congress earlier this year – that Iran was not planning to do so.
Speculation mounted about Trump’s intentions on Wednesday after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei rejected his demand for surrender.
The BBC’s US partner CBS reported that Trump had approved plans to attack Iran, but had not made a final decision on whether to go ahead.
The US president was holding off in case Iran agreed to abandon its nuclear programme, an intelligence source said.
On Thursday Trump responded on Truth Social, saying the Wall Street Journal, where the reports first appeared, had “no idea what my thoughts are concerning Iran”. He did not address whether plans had been approved.
The president is reportedly considering strikes on the Iranian nuclear site Fordo, a subterranean uranium enrichment facility.
Iran insists Fordo is used for civilian purposes only.
The site’s location, hidden away in a mountainside, puts it out of reach of Israel’s weaponry. Only the US is considered to have a bomb that might be large enough to destroy Fordo.
Diplomatic efforts are under way as the conflict continues, with European foreign ministers set to meet their Iranian counterpart in Switzerland on Friday.
Leavitt said that correspondence between American negotiators and the Iranians was continuing.
Reuters earlier reported that US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi had spoken on the phone several times since Israel began its strikes on Iran last week, in a bid to find a diplomatic end to the crisis.
Iran’s deputy foreign minister Saeed Khatibzadeh told the BBC he was hoping for diplomacy as a “first option”, but that while bombardment continues “we cannot start any negotiation”.
He said US involvement would be “hell for the whole region”, that would turn the conflict into a “quagmire”, continue aggression, and delay an end to the “brutal atrocities”.
This is “not America’s war” and if Trump does get involved, he will always be remembered as “a president who entered a war he doesn’t belong in”, Khatibzadeh added.
Trump’s two-week deadline came after a hospital in southern Israel was hit during an Iranian missile attack on Thursday morning.
Iranian state media reported that the strike targeted a military site next to the hospital, and not the facility itself.
Israel’s Ministry of Health said 71 people were wounded during the attack on the Soroka Medical Centre.
Israel said at least 24 people had been killed in the country since the start of the conflict. Iranian state media last updated its death toll on Sunday 15 June, when it said 224 people had been killed.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) – a Washington-based human rights organisation that has long tracked Iran – has said 639 people have been killed in Iran since Friday last week.
Israel’s military continued its strikes on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure on Thursday, saying it had struck an “inactive nuclear reactor” in Arak in overnight raids which also saw the uranium enrichment facility in Natanz targeted again.
