Trump says he has not decided on larger Iran strikes

US President Donald Trump said Friday that he had not decided whether to launch major strikes on Iran, while saying Tehran was becoming more serious in talks with Washington.

Asked in the Oval Office whether he had made a decision, Trump said he had not. He said the United States was talking with Iran and that he believed Tehran was becoming more serious “for maybe the obvious reason.”

Trump said Iran faced a choice between making a deal and facing a “much higher level” of strikes. The comments followed reports that Trump, frustrated with the situation, was meeting senior advisers to discuss a large-scale military operation against Iran.

The United States says it is carrying out strikes to stop Iran from closing the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has responded with strikes on US bases that have killed four service members. The conflict, which Trump once predicted would last four or five weeks, is nearing its fifth month and is weighing on his approval ratings ahead of November midterm elections.

Trump said the United States was “locked and loaded and ready to go,” but that talks were continuing. He said he did not know what the tipping point for a decision would be, while repeating that his red line would be Iran coming close to developing a nuclear weapon.

The New York Times reported that Trump met advisers on Friday. Axios quoted Trump as saying on Thursday that he was considering a “massive attack” on Iran.

Trump also repeated comments about Russia and China, saying he believed they were not arming Iran despite reports that both countries were giving Tehran intelligence to target US forces. Trump said Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin had told him they would not take part in arming Iran, and that he trusted them.

In a Truth Social post, Trump warned Moscow and Beijing not to sell weapons to Iran, saying it would be very bad for them and not in their interests if they did. He said Xi had told him during a May meeting in Beijing that China would not arm Iran under any circumstances, and that Putin had made a similar promise despite the war in Ukraine. Trump also said he did not sell weapons to Ukraine, but to NATO countries, and that he did not know how those weapons were distributed after NATO countries paid for them.