U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday declined to answer reporters' questions on whether the U.S. was planning to strike Iran or its nuclear facilities and said the Iranians had reached out, but he feels "it's very late to be talking."
"There's a big difference between now and a week ago," Trump told reporters outside the White House. "Nobody knows what I'm going to do."
Donald Trump speaking to reporters at the White House
(Reuters)
Trump said that Iran had proposed to come for talks at the White House. He did not provide details. He described Iran as totally defenseless, with no air defense whatsoever.
Trump's words come after Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rejected his demand for unconditional surrender on Wednesday, as Iranians jammed the highways out of Tehran fleeing from intensified Israeli airstrikes.
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In a recorded speech played on television, his first appearance since Friday, Khamenei, 86, said the Americans "should know that any U.S. military intervention will undoubtedly be accompanied by irreparable damage."
"Intelligent people who know Iran, the Iranian nation and its history will never speak to this nation in threatening language because the Iranian nation will not surrender," he said.
Trump has veered from proposing a swift diplomatic end to the war to suggesting the United States might join it. In social media posts on Tuesday he mused about killing Khamenei, then demanded Iran's "UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!"
First published: 17:51, 06.18.25