US President Donald Trump has announced that he would make a decision about US military involvement in Iran within two weeks, offering a timeframe for a possible intervention into a conflict that flared last week and has so far remained limited to Israel and the Islamic Republic.
“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 on whether or not to go within the next two weeks,” Trump said via White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who asserted that Tehran might be “a couple of weeks” away from being able to deploy a nuclear weapon.
“As for correspondence between the United States and the Iranians, I can confirm that correspondence has continued as you know we were engaged with six rounds of negotiations with them in both indirect and direct ways,” Leavitt said in a briefing.
Leavitt delivered Trump’s statement and discussed the president’s thinking as he faced defiance from many in his own party over his comments on Wednesday, in which he said that he “may” or “may not” order US forces to participate in Israel’s strikes against the Islamic republic.
Steve Bannon, one of the most influential voices from Trump’s “America First” coalition, has warned against any US military operations supporting Israel’s bid to destroy Iran’s nuclear programme absent a diplomatic deal.
“We can’t have another Iraq,” Bannon said in a discussion hosted on Wednesday by The Christian Science Monitor, referring to the war started in 2003, which is estimated to have killed some 4,700 US and allied troops.
“The Israelis have to finish what they started. They started this. They should finish it,” Bannon said.
Other political figures, who have staunchly supported Trump over many years – including Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, and far-right pundit Tucker Carlson – have also come out against US military intervention.
They are clashing with other Republicans who parrot Trump’s insistence that Iran is likely developing nuclear weapons or already has one, which they call an outcome that must be stopped by any means necessary.
Republicans supporting US military action against Tehran seem to include Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa, whose military background carries weight with her colleagues.
“Maybe our public is not aware that 43 Americans lost their lives on October 7 [2023] at the hands of Hamas, which is an Iran-backed terrorist organisation,” Ernst said in a contentious Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Wednesday.
Leavitt said that Iran only needed approval from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and two weeks to complete production of a weapon that would pose “an existential threat ... to the entire world”.
“Iran has all that it needs to achieve a nuclear weapon,” she said. “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, which would of course, pose an existential threat not just to Israel, but to the United States and to the entire world.
“That is something that the entire world, including countries like Russia, is in agreement with: that Iran should not and cannot obtain a nuclear weapon,” Leavitt added.
The press secretary was also asked whether Trump might want to involve Beijing in possible negotiations, just hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a call in which they urged Israel and Iran to stop fighting.
Asked whether Trump administration officials were concerned about China supporting Tehran, Leavitt said: “I don’t believe we’re seeing any signs of that at this moment in time.”
When pushed on whether a decision not to strike Iran might send a message to Beijing on Taiwan, Leavitt pointed to the “very respectful” and “cordial relationship” between Trump and Xi.
She noted that Trump had “long maintained” this relationship, even during his first term, emphasizing that the US and China “share many strategic interests, not only in economics but also in global affairs and foreign policy”.
Asked about the division among Republicans and the Trump base’s reluctance to engage in a foreign war, Leavitt urged his supporters to “trust” the president, citing his “incredible instincts” and describing him as a “peacemaker in chief” who preferred diplomacy but was not “afraid to use strength as well”.
