White House: Trump to make a decision on whether to attack Iran ‘within two weeks’
The White House said that Donald Trump will “make a decision on whether to attack Iran within two weeks.”
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt cited a message from Trump in which he said:
“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.”
Leavitt added that “correspondence has continued with Iran.”
Key events
Donald Trump has denied a report in the Wall Street Journal that he has approved US plans to attack Iran, saying that the news outlet has “no idea” what his thinking is concerning the Israel-Iran conflict.
The Guardian’s Edward Helmore reports:
The Journal reported late on Wednesday that Trump told senior aides a day earlier that he had approved attack plans but was delaying on giving the final order to see if Tehran would abandon its nuclear program. The report cited three anonymous officials.
On Thursday, Trump responded to the report, posting on Truth Social: “The Wall Street Journal has No Idea what my thoughts are concerning Iran!”
But Trump’s decision is dependent on whether the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) would destroy the Fordow uranium enrichment site, a US official told Axios. Fordow, which is built into a mountain south of Tehran, is a target of Israel’s, but they lack the “bunker-buster bombs” and aircraft needed to destroy it; the US has access to both.
“We’re going to be ready to strike Iran. We’re not convinced yet that we’re necessary. And we want to be unnecessary, but I think the president’s just not convinced we are needed yet,” a US official told the outlet.
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Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that the change or fall of the Iranian regime was not a goal but could be a result.
“The matter of changing the regime or the fall of this regime is first and foremost a matter for the Iranian people. There is no substitute for this. And that’s why I didn’t present it as a goal. It could be a result, but it’s not a stated or formal goal that we have,” Netanyahu told Israeli public broadcaster Kan, Reuters reports.
The day so far
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Israel’s defence minister said on Thursday that Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “can no longer be allowed to exist” after Soroka hospital in southern Israel was hit during an Iranian missile attack, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports. Israel Katz told journalists in Holon near Tel Aviv: “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.”
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Speaking at Soroka hospital in Beersheba, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was asked about Donald Trump’s intentions and whether Israel expected the president to join the bombing campaign against Iran. The president said at the hospital: “That’s a decision for the president to make, but I can tell you that they’re already helping a lot, because they’re participating in the protection of the skies over Israel and its cities.”
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A missile struck the base of a skyscraper on Jabotinsky street in Ramat Gan, close to central Tel Aviv and about 200 metres from the city’s diamond exchange. Local people said a takeaway pizza business took the full force of the strike, but some older apartment blocks across the road were also wrecked by the force of the blast, which had smashed windows across the district.
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The Associated Press (AP) reports that at least 240 people were wounded by the Iranian missile strikes on Thursday morning. The outlet said that four individuals has been seriously wounded, according to Israel’s Health Ministry.
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The Israeli military said on Thursday that Iran used a missile with multiple warheads in its attack, posing a new challenge to its defenses, the Associated Press (AP) reports. Instead of having to track one warhead, missiles with multiple warheads can pose a more difficult challenge for air defense systems, like Israel’s Iron Dome.
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US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi have spoken by phone several times since Israel began its strikes on Iran last week, in a bid to find a diplomatic end to the crisis, three diplomats told Reuters. According to the diplomats, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter, Araqchi said Tehran would not return to negotiations unless Israel stopped the attacks, which began on 13 June.
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German chancellor Friedrich Merz had a phone call with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which Merz called for moderation in Israel’s campaign against Iran, a German government source told Reuters on Thursday. Merz voiced Germany’s support in principle for Israeli military attacks on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure during the call on Wednesday evening but stressed the importance of seeking diplomatic solutions to the conflict, the source said.
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Iran could shut the strait of Hormuz as a way of hitting back against its enemies, a senior lawmaker said on Thursday, though a second member of parliament said this would only happen if Tehran’s vital interests were endangered. Iran has in the past threatened to close the strait of Hormuz to traffic in retaliation for western pressure, and shipping sources said on Wednesday that commercial ships were avoiding Iran’s waters around the strait, Reuters reported.
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The US special envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, on Thursday warned Lebanese group Hezbollah against getting involved in the war between its main backer Iran and Israel, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports. Barrack, who is also the US ambassador to Turkey, is on his first visit to Beirut, where he met top Lebanese officials including parliament speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah.
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Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli fire killed at least 25 people on Thursday, including 15 who had gathered near an aid distribution site. Civil defence official Mohammad al-Mughayyir told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that 15 people were killed and 60 wounded while waiting for aid in central Gaza’s Netzarim corridor, where thousands of people have gathered daily in the hope of receiving rations.
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Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araqchi confirmed on Thursday he would meet his British, French and German counterparts as well as the European Union’s top diplomat on Friday in Geneva, Iranian state media reported, according to Reuters. He said the meeting had come at the request of the three European states.
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Iran on Thursday accused the UN’s nuclear watchdog of acting as a “partner” in what it described as Israel’s “war of aggression”. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) accused Iran in a report prior to the start of the Iran-Israel war of non-compliance with its obligations in its nuclear programme.
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Iraq’s top Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani warned against targeting Iran’s leadership and said that the Iran-Israel war could plunge the whole region into chaos, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports. Sistani said in a statement on Thursday that any targeting of Iran’s “supreme religious and political leadership” would have “dire consequences on the region”.
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Ottawa is planning commercial options for Canadians in Israel, the West Bank and Iran to leave the region via neighbouring countries, foreign minister Anita Anand said on Thursday. “We are developing further options with our allies,” she said in a post on X, but gave no details.
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Lithuania will evacuate family members of its diplomats in Israel as well as non-essential staff after an Iranian missile struck Tel Aviv’s Ramat Gan neighbourhood, the Lithuanian foreign ministry said on Thursday.
Helena Smith
Meanwhile, more than 2,000 Israelis are expected today to return to the country from Cyprus, a regional hub for travellers trying to get into or out of the region since the crisis erupted.
An estimated 21 flights are scheduled for Haifa, Tel Aviv and the Red Sea port city of Aqaba in Jordan, according to sources at the island’s main international Larnaca as part of the repatriation scheme.
In the six days since the crisis erupted, more than 100 private vessels have also transported people to and from Israel from Larnaca marina.
The Cyprus news agency reported that 460 people had travelled out of Israel to the island via the sea route with roughly the same number boarding yachts and other craft to head back to Israel.
Returnees were quoted as saying that despite the explosive situation, they were desperate to be back home with their families. Cyprus is the nearest EU member state to the Middle East.
Defence minister Israel Katz says Iran’s supreme leader “personally gives the order to fire on hospitals” after Soroka hospital in southern Israel was hit during an Iranian missile attack.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi have spoken by phone several times since Israel began its strikes on Iran last week, in a bid to find a diplomatic end to the crisis, three diplomats told Reuters.
According to the diplomats, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter, Araqchi said Tehran would not return to negotiations unless Israel stopped the attacks, which began on 13 June.
They said the talks included a brief discussion of a US proposal given to Iran at the end of May that aims to create a regional consortium that would enrich uranium outside Iran, an offer Tehran has so far rejected.
US and Iranian officials did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the matter.
Ottawa is planning commercial options for Canadians in Israel, the West Bank and Iran to leave the region via neighbouring countries, foreign minister Anita Anand said on Thursday.
“We are developing further options with our allies,” she said in a post on X, but gave no details.
German chancellor Friedrich Merz had a phone call with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which Merz called for moderation in Israel’s campaign against Iran, a German government source told Reuters on Thursday.
Merz voiced Germany’s support in principle for Israeli military attacks on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure during the call on Wednesday evening but stressed the importance of seeking diplomatic solutions to the conflict, the source said.
Germany plans to host nuclear talks with its European partners and the Iranian foreign minister at its permanent representation in Geneva on Friday, a source told Reuters on Wednesday, with the goal of getting assurances from Iran that its nuclear programme is used solely for civilian purposes.
The leader of the opposition in the UK, Kemi Badenoch, has said she would “in principle” support the US using the UK-controlled Diego Garcia base in the Chagos Islands in a potential strike on Iran.
Asked if Keir Starmer should allow the US to use the base if necessary, she said: “So I haven’t seen the security briefings.
“But in principle, I think that that’s absolutely something that we should do. I don’t think the US or Israel would be rushing into something unless there was a serious threat to global security.
“But what is astonishing is that we now have to get permission from Mauritius, who are an ally of China and ally of Iran.
“That is a situation we should not have been in. And I’m also worried about us not being ready for the more dangerous world that we’re living in.”
She also said the UK should be thinking about pulling its citizens out of Israel.
Julian Borger
At the Soroka hospital in Beersheba, Netanyahu called for the Iranian people to rise up and overthrow their government, saying Israel might create the conditions for regime change with its bombing campaign while insisting that was not the objective.
He said:
People ask me – are we targeting the downfall of the regime.
That may be a result, but it’s up to the Iranian people to rise for their freedom. Freedom is never cheap. It’s never free. Freedom requires these subjugated people to rise up, and it’s up to them.
But we may create conditions that will help them do it. Our goal is twofold. Nuclear [and] ballistic missiles. We are going to remove them. We are in the process of completing and removing this threat.
Speaking in Hebrew, the prime minister added:
I want to tell you that 2,500 years ago, Cyrus the Great, the King of Persia, liberated the Jews. And today, a Jewish state is creating the means to liberate the Persian people.
Netanyahu says US is already helping Israel ‘a lot’ with Iran conflict
Julian Borger
Speaking at Soroka hospital in Beersheba, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was asked about Donald Trump’s intentions and whether Israel expected the president to join the bombing campaign against Iran.
The president said at the hospital:
That’s a decision for the president to make, but I can tell you that they’re already helping a lot, because they’re participating in the protection of the skies over Israel and its cities.
President Trump will do what’s best for America. I trust his judgment. He is a tremendous friend, a tremendous world leader, a tremendous friend of Israel and the Jewish people.
And we will do what we have to do, and we are doing it. We are committed to destroying the nuclear threat, the threat of a nuclear annihilation against Israel. We’re able to do it.
But I have to say that the partnership with the United States, the partnership with President Trump, with whom I speak to almost every day, is incredible.
Netanyahu said he had praise for Trump’s “resolve, his determination, and his clarity when he says Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon – and for that to take place, Iran cannot enrich uranium.”
He added:
It’s as simple as that. He gave them the chance to do it through negotiations.
They strung them along. You don’t string along Donald Trump. He’s committed to making sure that Iran will not have a nuclear weapon, and they won’t.
The Israeli military said on Thursday that Iran used a missile with multiple warheads in its attack, posing a new challenge to its defenses, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
Instead of having to track one warhead, missiles with multiple warheads can pose a more difficult challenge for air defense systems, like Israel’s Iron Dome.
There was no immediate independent analysis that could be made.
Iranian police announced the arrest on Thursday of 24 people accused of spying for Israel and of seeking to tarnish the country’s image, according to a statement carried by Tasnim news agency, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
Kiumars Azizi, police commander for west Tehran, said:
Twenty-four individuals who were spying for the Zionist enemy offline and online, and who were… trying to disturb public opinion, and to tarnish and destroy the image of the sacred system of the Islamic Republic of Iran, were arrested.
Here are some more photos coming to us through the wires of the events unfolding in the Middle East:
A key Iranian body warned the US on Thursday that any intervention in support of its ally Israel would be met with a “harsh response”, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
The Guardian Council said in a statement carried by state television:
The criminal American government and its stupid president must know for sure that if they make a mistake and take action against Islamic Iran, they will face a harsh response from the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Julian Borger
Benjamin Netanyahu has just left Soroka hospital in Beer Sheva. He toured the site and gave a statement to the press.
According Ynet news, he said: “The entire people of Israel are paying a price. We are going through a blitz, and we are going through it in an astonishing way.”
“There are personal costs, people have been hurt, families have lost their loved ones. Each of us bears a personal cost, and my family has not been exempt – this is the second time that my son Avner has cancelled a wedding due to missile threats. It is a personal cost for his fiancee as well, and I must say that my dear wife is a hero, and she bears a personal cost.”
