Trump To Decide ‘Within 2 Weeks’ On US Action As Israel Threatens Khamenei, Further Attacks on Iran
The White House said President Donald Trump will make a decision “within two weeks” on whether to get directly involved in the Israeli-Iran conflict, while Israel threatened further attacks against Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile assets as the violence showed no signs of easing.
“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,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, reading out a message from Trump on June 19.
During a press briefing, Leavitt said the US president favored a diplomatic solution with Tehran but that his main goal was to ensure that Iran could not obtain a nuclear weapon.
She reiterated Trump’s insistence that any agreement would have to prohibit uranium enrichment by Iran and ensure that Tehran was not able to get nuclear arms. Iran has insisted its nuclear program is for civilian purposes and has often rejected a ban on uranium enrichment.
“The president is always interested in a diplomatic solution…he is a peacemaker in chief. He is the peace through strength president. And, so, if there’s a chance for diplomacy, the president’s always going to grab it,” Leavitt said.
“But he’s not afraid to use strength as well, I will add,” she told reporters.
On his Truth Social platform, Trump rejected a Wall Street Journal report — which cited three people familiar with the matter — that said he had told aides he had approved plans for US forces to join Israel in the attacks on Iran but that he was waiting to see if Tehran would give up its nuclear program.
“The Wall Street Journal has No Idea what my thoughts are concerning Iran!” Trump wrote.
Bloomberg also reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that US officials are preparing for a potential strike on Iran in the next few days, possibly over the weekend.
In comments to reporters on June 18, Trump said he was “not looking to fight” Iran but that he might be forced to conduct such operations to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons.
“I’m not looking to fight,” he said. “But if it’s a choice between fighting and [Iran] having a nuclear weapon, you have to do what you have to do.”
“You may have to fight,” he later stated.
“I may do it. I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do,” Trump told reporters later outside the White House.
In a televised interview, Prime Minister Bejamin Netanyahu said Israel is “capable of striking all of Iran’s nuclear facilities” but “all help is welcome.”
“Trump will do what is good for the United States, and I will do what is good for the State of Israel,” Netanyahu said.
Iran’s Fordow uranium enrichment facility is hidden under a mountain and considered to be out of reach of Israeli weapons but susceptible to US “bunker-buster” bombs.
Israel on June 19 vowed to “remove” Tehran’s nuclear and ballistic missile threat after Iranian air strikes hit a hospital earlier in the day.
Israeli military officials said several populated areas inside the country were attacked by Iran on June 19, including the hospital in the southern city of Beersheba. Local media said there was severe damage to one ward of the hospital, with 40 people suffering mainly minor injuries.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), according to the Tasnim news agency associated with the IRGC, said it had targeted an Israeli military and intelligence headquarters near the Soroka medical center — the only Level 1 trauma center in southern Israel — in Beersheba.
Israel said it bombed nuclear targets in Iran on June 19, including the Natanz and Isfahan sites. It had said the Busher site, the location of the country’s only functioning nuclear power plant, was hit, but later retracted the statement.
“We are committed to destroying the nuclear threat, the threat of a nuclear annihilation against Israel,” Netanyahu told reporters while visiting Beersheba.
“Our goal is twofold — nuclear, ballistic missile. We’re going to remove them. We are in the process of completing the (removal of) this threat.”
Early on June 20, the Israeli military issued an evacuation warning for people in the industrial area of the Iranian village of Kolesh Taleshan, saying it planned to hit military infrastructure there. Details were not immediately available.
Meanwhile, Defense Minister Israel Katz said instructions had been handed down to “increase the intensity of attacks against strategic targets in Iran and against government targets in Tehran, warning Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, “can no longer be allowed to exist.”
“Khamenei openly declares that he wants Israel destroyed — he personally gives the order to fire on hospitals…He considers the destruction of the state of Israel to be a goal. Such a man can no longer be allowed to exist,” Katz said.
As tensions rose, Washington’s European allies heightened efforts to bring about a diplomatic solution.
The foreign ministers of Germany, France, and Britain plan to hold nuclear talks with Abbas Araqchi on June 20 in Geneva, while the United Nations has scheduled a meeting on the crisis for the same day.
A German diplomatic source told news agencies that the Geneva talks are aimed at persuading Iran to guarantee it will use its nuclear program solely for civilian purposes.
White House spokeswoman Leavitt told reporters that Trump expects the European foreign ministers to deliver a “message directly to the Iranians” in those discussions.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on June 19 that there is a “real risk of escalation” and urged Trump to step back from military action against Iran.
Israel launched the current offensive against Iran on June 13 saying it was necessary to halt Tehran’s nuclear program, with rights groups saying more than 600 people being killed, including civilians. Iran responded by launching drones and missiles into Israel, killing some 24 people, according to Israeli officials.
Much of Iran’s military and scientific leadership has been killed in air strikes.
Israel and many of its Western allies, including the United States, accuse Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapons. Tehran has vehemently rejected the accusations, saying its atomic program is purely for civilian purposes.
The Israeli military on June 19 confirmed it was carrying out a “series of strikes” around the Iranian capital and other areas, including on the Arak heavy-water reactor 250 kilometers southeast of Tehran after issuing an evacuation warning.
“The strike targeted the component intended for plutonium production, in order to prevent the reactor from being restored and used for nuclear weapons development,” Israel’s military said.
