US President Donald Trump said Wednesday he doesn't want to carry out a US strike on Iran but suggested he stands ready to act if it's necessary to extinguish Iran's nuclear program.
Trump continued his increasingly pointed warnings about the US joining Israel in striking at Iran's nuclear program as Iran's leader warned anew that the United States would be greeted with stiff retaliation if it attacks.
The stakes are high for Trump as he faces a push-pull debate between his goals of avoiding dragging the U.S. into another war and preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
“I'm not looking to fight," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "But if it's a choice between fighting and having a nuclear weapon, you have to do what you have to do.”
Trump earlier on Wednesday told reporters that it's not “too late” for Iran to give up its nuclear program.
“I may do it, I may not do it,” Trump said in another exchange with reporters at the White House on Wednesday. “I mean, nobody knows what I'm going to do.”
“Nothing is finished until it is finished,” Trump added. But “the next week is going to be very big— maybe less than a week."
Trump also offered a terse response to Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's refusal to heed to his call for Iran to submit to an unconditional surrender.
“I say good luck,” Trump said.
Khamenei earlier Wednesday warned that any United States strikes targeting the Islamic Republic will “result in irreparable damage for them” and that his country would not bow to Trump's call for surrender.
Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers Wednesday that the Pentagon was providing possible options to Trump as he decides next steps on Iran.
Trump said Tuesday the US knows where Khamenei is hiding but doesn't want him killed — “for now.”
“He is an easy target, but is safe there - We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now," Trump said.
Trump's increasingly muscular comments toward the Iranian government follow him urging Tehran's 9.5 million residents to flee for their lives as he cut short his participation in an international summit earlier this week to return to Washington for urgent talks with his national security team.
Trump said that the Iranian officials continue to reach out to the White House as they're “getting the hell beaten out of them” by Israel. But he added there's a “big difference between now and a week ago" in Tehran's negotiating position.
“They've suggested that they come to the White House— that's, you know, courageous,” Trump said.
Iran's mission to the United Nations refuted Trump's claim in a statement on social media. “No Iranian official has ever asked to grovel at the gates of the White House. The only thing more despicable than his lies is his cowardly threat to take out' Iran's Supreme Leader.”
The US president said earlier this week Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to serve as a mediator with Iran. But Trump said he told Putin to keep focused on finding an endgame to his own conflict with Ukraine.
“I said, Do me a favour, mediate your own,'” Trump said he told Putin. “I said, Vladimir, let's mediate Russia first. You can worry about this later.'”
The comments were a shift from Trump who earlier this week said he was “open” to Putin's offer to mediate.
Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said earlier Wednesday that Moscow has cautioned Washington against offering direct military assistance to Israel.
“We are warning Washington against even speculative, hypothetical considerations of the sort,” Ryabkov said, according to the Interfax news agency. “That would be a step drastically destabilizing the situation as a whole.”
The Russia-Iran relationship has deepened since Putin launched a war on Ukraine in February 2022, with Tehran providing Moscow with drones, ballistic missiles, and other support, according to US intelligence findings. (AP)