DONALD Trump has said he "may" or "may not" join Israel in its airstrikes on Iran.
Israel’s air campaign against Iran entered its sixth day on Wednesday, with jets striking the Iranian capital Tehran overnight.
Israeli military chiefs said the air strikes targeted a facility used to make uranium centrifuges, part of Iran’s nuclear programme, and a factory building missile components.
Trump has reportedly been considering whether to deploy American forces in support of Israel’s operations against Iran, which have so far killed 585 people – including 239 civilians, according to US-based group Human Rights Activists.
In response, Iran has fired 400 missiles and hundreds of drones at Israel, killing at least 24 people.
Trump met with top military advisers on Tuesday night to discuss the situation, shortly after a series of social media posts in which he described Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as an “easy target”.
On Wednesday, the US president was speaking to the media on the lawn of the White House.
Asked if the US was moving towards striking Iran, Trump replied: “I can’t say that … You don’t seriously think I’m going to answer that question.”
He went on: “You don’t know that I’m going to even do it. You don’t know. I may do it, I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do.
“I can tell you this – Iran’s got a lot of trouble, and they want to negotiate. And I said, ‘Why didn’t you negotiate with me before – all this death and destruction.’ Why didn’t you negotiate? I said to the people, ‘Why didn’t you negotiate with me two weeks ago? You could have done fine. You would have had a country.'”
Earlier, Sir Keir Starmer insisted Trump was interested in de-escalation in the Middle East, saying “nothing” he had heard from the president suggested Washington was poised to get involved.
Asked on Wednesday whether the Prime Minister was still confident that Trump would not involve US forces in the conflict, a Number 10 spokesman said the UK’s position was still that “we want to de-escalate rather than escalate”.
