“In view of the fact that there is a considerable chance of negotiations with Iran, which could take place in the near future or not, I will decide within the next two weeks whether we will get started,” said Trump’s explanation on Thursday evening that his spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt read before journalists in Washington.
Leavitt said Iran has “everything he needs to produce a nuclear weapon”. According to a corresponding decision by the spiritual head Ayatollah Ali Chamenei, “it would take a few weeks to complete the production of this weapon”.
On Thursday afternoon, the US President held the third meeting in the so-called situation of Room, the crisis center in the basement of the White House, where the most important military decisions are made.
According to a report by the “Wall Street Journal”, Trump is said to have already approved attack plans against Iran. However, he is still waiting to see if Iran agreed to give up his nuclear program. “If there is a chance for diplomacy, the President will always take her, but he is also not afraid of showing strength,” said Leavitt.
Some Trump supporters, including his former chief consultant Steve Bannon and the right-wing moderator Tucker Carlson, have publicly spoken out against the war between Iran and Israel. Most recently, there was an unusually open exchange of blows between Trump and Tucker Carlson.
In turn, ultra-right Bannon is considered a influential political strategist in parts of the political right in the USA, especially through its podcast entitled “The War Room” (the command center). He had played a central role in Trump’s 2016 presidential election campaign.
With his promise to pull the USA out of its “eternal wars” in the Middle East, Trump scored in his election wins in 2016 and 2024. “Trump President Trump. President Trump has incredible instincts,” said his spokeswoman Leavitt.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) meanwhile spoke out in favor of maintaining the “space for diplomatic efforts”. He spoke on the phone with the Emir of Qatar on the conflict between Iran and Israel “, Merz said on Thursday evening in online service X with a view of Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. “Iran’s nuclear program threatens the security and stability of the region,” he warned. He and the Emir agree that there should be “no expansion of the conflict”. “The room for diplomatic efforts must be preserved.”
Britain’s Foreign Minister David Lammy commented similarly. In his view, there is “a time window within the next two weeks to achieve a diplomatic solution”.
Lammy also commented on Thursday after talks with his US colleague Marco Rubio and the US specialist Steve Witkoff and one day before a meeting in Geneva with his colleagues from Germany and France with the Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghtschi. “We talked about how Iran had to do a deal to avoid tightening the conflict,” said Lammy, according to a explanation of the British message, after talking to Rubio and Witkoff.
Great Britain and the United States are “determined that Iran must never have a nuclear weapon,” it said. It is now “to put an end to the bad scenes in the Middle East and prevent regional escalation that is not useful”. Witkoff’s participation in the meeting in Geneva was initially not planned.
Israel had launched a major attack on Iran last Friday and has bombarded nuclear facilities and military facilities in the country since then. Israel justifies his approach with the advanced Iranian nuclear program. In his part, Iran attacks Israel massively with rockets and drones.
On Thursday, the air alarm was triggered in several regions of Israel in the course of a new Iranian rocket attack. One of the attacks hit the Soroka Hospital in Beerscheva in the south of the country.
Western states have been accusing Iran to strive for nuclear weapons for years, which Tehran denies. In the international nuclear agreement with Iran concluded in 2015, Tehran had committed to enriching uranium only up to 3.67 percent.
After the United States’ exit from the 2018 Agreement, Tehran has massively raised its uranium enrichment-according to the International Atomic Energy Organization (IAEA), the country had an enriched uranium over 408.6 kilos. With such a supply, more than nine explosive heads could be produced with an enrichment to 90 percent – the threshold required for the construction of a bomb.
