US President Donald Trump says he will likely decide whether to launch strikes against Iran within the next 10 days, as he continues the biggest American military build-up in the Middle East since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Trump made the remarks in Washington at the first meeting of the Board of Peace, a new international alliance convened by Trump that has so far been snubbed by a number of major US allies, including Australia.
“Iran is a hotspot right now,” Trump said. “Good talks are being had. It’s proven to be over the years not easy to make a meaningful deal. We have to make a meaningful deal otherwise bad things happen.”
The president referred to his strikes in June on Iran’s major nuclear facilities, which he said had decimated the Islamic Republic’s ability to develop nuclear weapons and cleared the way for a deal to end Israel’s war in Gaza.
“Now we may have to take a step further, or we may not,” Trump said. “Maybe we’re going to make a deal. But you’re going to be finding out over the next probably 10 days.”
