President Donald Trump is meeting with his national security team in the White House Situation Room for the second time in two days, as he considers whether to order a military strike against Iran amid its ongoing conflict with Israel.
The meeting began shortly before 5 p.m. ET on Wednesday, a White House official told NBC News.
Meanwhile, his administration has begun preparing for large-scale evacuations of Americans who want to leave Israel.
The closed-door gathering took place as Trump insisted he had not yet decided whether to give the final order for a U.S. strike in support of Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Iranian nuclear and military targets.
“I may do it, I may not do it,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday morning.
“I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do,” Trump said. “I can tell you this, that Iran’s got a lot of trouble, and they want to negotiate.”
Asked if he gave Iran an ultimatum, Trump said, “You could say so. Maybe you could call it the ultimate ultimatum.”
Also on Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said evacuation flights and cruise ship departures are being arranged for American citizens seeking to leave Israel.
A U.S. strike against Iran is one option among a range that Trump is weighing, NBC reported Tuesday.
Trump said multiple times on Wednesday that Iranian officials want to meet with him at the White House, even after an official social media account for Iran denied the claim and denounced Trump for threatening its leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“They asked if they could come,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon, prior to his national security meeting. “We’ll see if that happens. It’s not that easy for them to come. They can’t get out.”
Earlier Wednesday, Khamenei threatened the U.S. with “irreparable damage” if Washington followed through with a military strike against nuclear facilities in the regional power.
CNBC has reached out to the White House for comment.
Iran and Israel have been trading missile fire since Friday, when the Jewish state launched what it called a preemptive attack on Iran’s nuclear program and other military sites.
The International Atomic Energy Agency on Wednesday said two nuclear centrifuge production facilities in Iran were hit.
Trump on Tuesday warned that the patience of the U.S. — a historically close ally and weapons provider of Israel — was “wearing thin.”
“We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social media platform, stressing the White House does not want missiles “shot at civilians, or American soldiers” but nevertheless aims for Tehran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”
Washington has previously insisted it was not directly involved in the hostilities, but Trump’s latest comments have stoked speculation over a change in strategy — and a potential direct U.S. military attack against Iranian sites.
