President Donald Trump has continued to offer mixed signals about whether the United States would directly intervene in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran, who has seen six days of intense bombing.
The Republican leader began his Wednesday at the White House grass, where he installed two giant flags, each of 88 feet, or 27 meters, high.
However, during that appearance, he faced the question that is coming about the conflict of the Middle East: would the United States join Israel to hit Iran's nuclear facilities?
“You don't know what I'm going to do even,” Trump told a journalist. “I can.
Later, while posing for photographs in the Oval office with the Juventus football club, Trump once again pointed out that he had not decided and it was unlikely that he did it until the last moment possible.
“I have ideas about what to do, but I have not done a final [call]”Trump said.
“I like to make a final decision a second before it is due, you know? Because things change, especially with war. Things change with war. It can go from one extreme to another.”
That ambiguity on whether the United States can enter the fray has fed uncertainty within the conflict, and has led to the controversy in the domestic front for Trump.
Military for 'Being ready'
Some Republicans and Democrats have introduced legislation to limit Trump's ability to participate in the fight between Iran and Israel. Meanwhile, conservative commentator Tucker Carlson has published a video interview that he recorded with the right -wing senator Ted Cruz, where Trump's two supporters called on whether the United States should boost the change of regime in Iran.
Trump himself was asked to evaluate his debate on Wednesday from the Oval office. The president said he sympathized with Carlson's desire to keep the United States out of expensive foreign conflict, but with a warning.
“I don't want to fight either. I'm not looking to fight,” Trump said. “But if it is a situation between the fight and they have a nuclear weapon, you have to do what you have to do. We may not have to fight. Do not forget: we have not been fighting.”
The Trump administration described Israel's initial strike on June 13 as a “unilateral action.” But the president himself has pointed out that he knew about the attack in advance and supported Israel's military campaign.
In the testimony of the Congress, the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, told the legislators that the United States army would be ready if asked.
“President Trump's word means something. The world understands that,” Hegseth said. “And in the Department of Defense, our work is to be ready and prepared with options. And that is precisely what we are doing.”
Speculation on nuclear capabilities
The current conflict has argued that Trump repeatedly would never have begun if Iran had accepted the terms of the United States to limit their nuclear program. American officials had met with their Iranian counterparts since April to talk about the limitation of Uranium enrichment in Iran, a necessary step to build a nuclear weapon.
But Iran has long denied any ambition to build a nuclear arsenal and, on the other hand, has maintained that its uranium is used only for civil energy purposes.
Even so, Trump tied the ongoing conflict with Israel with the fear that Iran had come to build a bomb. He warned that, if Iran had a nuclear weapon, “the entire world will explode.”
“I have been saying for 20 years, maybe more, that Iran can't have a nuclear weapon. I've been saying it for a long time, and I think they were a few weeks after having a,” Trump said Wednesday.
In March, however, Trump's national intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard declared before the Congress that the American intelligence community had evaluated “Iran is not building a nuclear weapon.” Since then, he has returned that comment, calling his position in line with the president.
Critics have warned that Trump may be building the case for the participation of the United States in the conflict between Israel and Iran highlighting the risk of Iran's uranium enrichment facilities.
Israel has also pointed out the possibility of an Iranian nuclear weapon as its justification to launch the first attack. An American ally, it is believed that Israel has its own non -revealed nuclear arsenal.
Stagnant negotiations
However, negotiations with the United States stopped after Israel's strike on June 13, which became a heated missile fire exchange. A scheduled meeting was canceled during the weekend, and some of Iran's representatives in the nuclear conversations were killed in the initial explosions, as well as military leaders and scientists.
Trump lamented the failure of those conversations again on Wednesday, blaming Iran for not complying with a 60 -day deadline established in April.
“Why didn't you negotiate with me before all this death and destruction?” Trump asked. “I told people: why didn't you negotiate with me two weeks ago? You could have done well. You would have had a country. It's very sad to see this.”
He confirmed that Iranian officials had contacted him a White House meeting since the outbreak of the recent conflict.
“I said it's too late to be talking,” Trump told reporters, transmitting his answer. “There is a big difference between now and a week.”
Trump's own words in recent days have fed fears that conflict could become a regional war. Just a day before, Tuesday, Trump publicly reflected that he could kill the supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, and requested the “unconditional surrender” of the country.
Since then, Iran has responded to Trump's comments. In an interview with the host of CNN Christiane Amanpour, the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran, Majid Takht-Ravanchi, dismissed the reports that his officials were trying to return to negotiations with the United States.
“We are not reaching anyone. We are defending ourselves,” said Takht-Ravanchi. “We can negotiate under threats. We cannot negotiate while our people are under bombing every day. Therefore, we are not asking for anything.”
“If Americans are directly involved, our hands will definitely be tied. We will do whatever it is necessary to protect our people and our interests.”
Khamenei himself said that US participation in the conflict would have “serious irreparable consequences” and denounced Trump's threats.
Repeated calls to 'unconditional surrender'
Trump himself on Wednesday offered different interpretations of how he saw the conflict finish, the first in his appearance in the White House grass, where he repeated his call to “unconditional surrender.”
“Unconditional roll: that means that I have had it. Ok? I have had it. I give up. No more. Then we are going to exploit all the nuclear things that are for the whole place there,” Trump said again, blaming Iran again for the fighting.
“They had bad intentions. For 40 years, they have been saying: Death to America! Death to Israel! Death to any other person who did not like. They were thugs. They were thugs of the courtyard of the school, and now they are no longer thugs.”
Later, in the Oval office, Trump indicated that the conflict could be resolved simply ensuring that Iran did not have their hands in a nuclear weapon.
“We are not looking for fire. We are looking for a full total victory. Do you know what the victory is? Without a nuclear weapon.”
He warned that next week “it would be very big”, although he did not share details about what that meant for the future of the conflict.
According to reports, the death toll in Iran has increased to 240 people, including 70 women and children.
