WASHINGTON, Wednesday, June 18, 2025 : U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday refused to rule out direct American military involvement in the rapidly intensifying conflict between Israel and Iran, but stopped short of revealing his next course of action, saying only that \u201cnobody knows what I\u2019m going to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking at the White House in his first on-camera remarks since cutting short his participation in the G7 summit in Canada, Trump claimed Iran had reached out to him and remained interested in a deal, despite heightened tensions.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI may do it; I may not do it,\u201d he said in response to a question about potential U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites. \u201cIran\u2019s got a lot of trouble, and they want to negotiate.\u201d<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The remarks came just hours after Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivered a defiant speech, rejecting Trump\u2019s demand for an \u201cunconditional surrender\u201d and warning the U.S. of severe consequences if it chose military action.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThose who know Iran, its people, and its history would never speak to this nation in the language of threats,\u201d Khamenei said in a televised address, according to Iranian state media. \u201cThe Iranian nation will not submit. Any U.S. military intervention will inflict irreparable damage.\u201d<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n
President Trump claimed he had issued Iran the \u201cultimate ultimatum\u201d but declined to elaborate on its specifics. He criticized Tehran for missing a 60-day deadline he said he had set for rejoining nuclear negotiations, calling their failure to do so a \u201cmistake.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI tried to do it nicely,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThen on Day 61, I said, \u2018Let\u2019s go,\u2019 because we can\u2019t let that happen,\u201d referring to Iran’s alleged pursuit of a nuclear weapon.<\/p>\n
The current flare-up follows Israel\u2019s airstrikes on Iranian targets last week, which triggered the latest round of hostilities. Trump previously stated he had urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to delay any military action to avoid undermining U.S. diplomatic efforts.<\/p>\n
When asked whether it was now \u201ctoo late\u201d for Iran to return to the negotiating table, Trump gave mixed signals. \u201cNothing is too late,\u201d he said initially, before adding that he told Iranian interlocutors it was \u201cvery late\u201d when they reached out.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThere\u2019s a big difference between now and a week ago,\u201d Trump remarked, underscoring the rapidly evolving nature of the crisis.<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The escalating rhetoric from both Washington and Tehran has deepened concerns about the prospect of a broader regional conflict in the Middle East.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON, Wednesday, June 18, 2025 : U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday refused to rule out direct American military involvement in the rapidly intensifying conflict between Israel and Iran, but stopped short of revealing his next course of action, saying only that \u201cnobody knows what I\u2019m going to do.\u201d Speaking at the White House in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5609,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thediplomat.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thediplomat.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thediplomat.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thediplomat.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thediplomat.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thediplomat.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thediplomat.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thediplomat.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thediplomat.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thediplomat.com.pk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}