Donald Trump sets two-week deadline on Iran involvement
PRESIDENT OPTS FOR ‘BREATHING ROOM’
As the Israel-Iran conflict continues to rage, US President Donald Trump says he has set a two-week deadline to decide whether he will order America to join the war.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt stood up in the White House in the last few hours and read a statement from the US president which declared: “Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.”
The BBC said of Trump’s statement: “In the space of one short sentence, the temperature over possible US strikes on Iran has seemingly been lowered several degrees”, adding: “the window for diplomacy has been opened”.
The New York Times also reckons that Trump had “appeared to opt for some breathing room to give diplomacy a chance”. CNN reports Leavitt said in the briefing: “As for correspondence between the United States and the Iranians, I can confirm that correspondence has continued.”
It was put to Leavitt that Trump has regularly used two-week deadlines that haven’t resulted in any decisions being made. The BBC’s Anthony Zurcher recalls some of the other missed deadlines, such as with Russia over Ukraine, and said “for Trump, a two-week deadline is seldom set in stone”.
Trump’s statement follows days of speculation over whether he was about to order America’s military to join Israel’s attacks on Iran. As CNN points out, Trump appeared “increasingly warming to the possibility” through the week, with The Wall Street Journal reporting on Wednesday that Trump had told senior aides he had approved of attack plans for Iran, but was holding off on giving the final order. (Trump took to Truth Social on Thursday to respond with: “The Wall Street Journal has No Idea what my thoughts are concerning Iran!”)
The Guardian also claimed Trump had suggested to defence officials that strikes against Iran would only make sense if the so-called “bunker buster” GBU-57 bomb was guaranteed to destroy the critical uranium enrichment facility at Fordow. The newspaper said Trump “does not appear to be fully convinced” the 13.6-tonne bomb would be enough to eliminate the site, given how deeply it is located.
Earlier on Thursday, the Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, southern Israel, was damaged by a missile strike. No-one is reported to have been killed in the attack, with Israel’s Ministry of Health saying 71 had been injured, the BBC reports.
The New York Times quotes the hospital’s director-general Shlomi Codish as saying the hospital’s old surgical building had been hit, but departments in the building had been evacuated in recent days. Iran has said it was targeting a military site next to the hospital.
The Guardian reports Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz said in response to the attack: “[Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei openly declares that he wants Israel destroyed, he personally gives the order to fire on hospitals. He considers the destruction of the state of Israel to be a goal, such a man can no longer be allowed to exist.”
Israel launched a fresh wave of strikes against targets in Iran, including a nuclear complex, on Thursday, and overnight attacked the Arak heavy water reactor. The Associated Press highlights the International Atomic Energy Agency has previously warned such sites, whether in Iran or Ukraine, should not be military targets.
Speaking to the BBC, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh warned Trump not to get involved in the conflict, saying it was “not America’s war”. He also said that “diplomacy is the first option”, but while the bombardment continues, “no-one can go for negotiation”.
On America, Khatibzadeh added: “If they would like to get into this war, President Trump will be remembered forever for a war that it was not his war, but dragged him. And this will be a quagmire and this will be hell for the whole region.”
The foreign ministers of France, Germany, and the UK will meet with Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Abbas Araghchi in Geneva on Friday, local time, to discuss Iran’s nuclear program, Euronews reports.
The NYT says the Europeans “are now trying to exert what limited leverage they have as weapons suppliers or potential peacemakers to try to end the war”. UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy has also met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the past couple of hours.
Sky News points out Leavitt said in her recent press briefing that “pretty much all of humanity” agreed that Iran should not be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons, adding Trump “expects that Europe will deliver that message directly to the Iranians” when they meet on Friday.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he trusted Trump would “do what’s best for America” with regards to the conflict, the Associated Press reports. “I can tell you that they’re already helping a lot,” he said while visiting the Soroka Medical Centre.
In Gaza, rescuers and medics said at least 12 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces while waiting for aid on Thursday, the BBC reports.
The broadcaster highlights that hundreds of Palestinians have been killed since the end of May, when the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation took over distributing aid in Gaza as Israel attempted to bypass the United Nations.
“The Israeli military told Reuters that ‘suspects’ had attempted to approach forces in the area of Netzarim, and that soldiers had fired warning shots. It said it was unaware of any injuries,” the BBC adds.
PESUTTO GETS $1.55M LOAN
In domestic news, while The Commentariat (see below) still only wants to talk about when the prime minister will meet with a 79-year-old president the nation really isn’t keen on hearing from, the Victorian Liberals once again find themselves making headlines this morning.
The AAP reports the party’s administrative committee met last night and agreed to lend former leader John Pesutto $1.55 million “to settle his debt to MP Moira Deeming”.
The ABC recalls Pesutto was ordered to pay Deeming $2.3 million in legal costs after she successfully sued him for defamation, but had been unable to pay the debt. Pesutto had been seeking donations to avoid bankruptcy and being kicked out of parliament, the broadcaster adds.
The decision by the party on Thursday evening means Pesutto no longer faces being expelled (and the party avoids the prospect of a by-election in Hawthorn) and will now repay the party the $1.55 million “under a commercial arrangement”.
The Age says Victorian Liberal president Philip Davis wrote in an email to party members: “Settling this matter once and for all is in the interests of the party, as it will see an end to the ongoing commentary that is letting Labor get away with their appalling performance.
“By ensuring that Mrs Deeming has been paid, there will be no Hawthorn by-election, and the state parliamentary team can focus on the urgent needs of the Victorian community, particularly campaigning to change the government at the 2026 election.”
AAP reports opposition leader Brad Battin urged Deeming and Pesutto to “smell the roses” if either woke up this morning unhappy with the outcome.
Elsewhere, the newswire also reports this morning “tougher youth crime laws and Aboriginal deaths in custody will be in focus when peak Indigenous bodies meet government ministers to assess Closing the Gap progress”.
The joint council meeting will take place in Darwin today, with Federal Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy attending, along with her state and territory counterparts and Coalition of Peaks members.
And The Australian Financial Review reports on some of the revenue-raising options that are apparently expected to be proposed by Treasury to help Jim Chalmers’ tax reform.
The newspaper reckons higher taxes on family trusts and electric vehicle drivers could be put forward, as well as “winding back the 50% discount on capital gains, curtailing franking credits as a trade-off for reducing corporate tax, and higher taxes on mining, energy and carbon”. This is all according to tax experts, the report adds.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE…
Larry the cat, Downing Street’s chief mouser, doesn’t look like he’s going to get new colleagues anytime soon.
A Labour peer’s attempts to bring cats into the House of Parliament to control mice and other vermin have been rejected, the BBC reports.
Senior Deputy Speaker Lord Gardiner of Kimble (yes, I know) told Lord Berkeley (yes, I know) that the advice given was that cats would be at risk of construction activity in parliament, self-closing doors and the fact there were no arrangements for looking after the felines.
“We continue to work with our pest control contractor to implement targeted and effective regimes across the palace,” Lord Gardiner added.
The BBC points out Larry has been joined by Sir Keir Starmer’s new family cat Jojo recently. Meanwhile, Palmerston — the former Foreign Office cat — has come out of retirement to take up a posting in Bermuda.
Say What?
The Starship preparing for the tenth flight test experienced a major anomaly while on a test stand at Starbase.
SpaceX
For those who want to see what a “major anomaly” looks like, the footage (and commentary) of the SpaceX Starship rocket exploding into a gigantic fireball at the Massey’s Testing Centre in Texas on Wednesday is quite something. All personnel were safe and accounted for afterwards, the company said.
CRIKEY RECAP
Chaos, violence and war become the norm as the US empire collapses
The assassination of a politician thus becomes just another data point in America’s descent into civil conflict and authoritarianism. That, in turn, is part of a bigger picture of the nation’s decline: the capital flight, the chaotic decision-making, the rising yields on Treasury bonds, the accelerating shift of innovation to China, the wrecking of US global soft power.
This is, visibly, an empire in freefall, one under the management of an unstable autocrat who half accepts the logic of imperial decline and half rails at it. Gone are the once-dominant neoconservatives — of both parties — now replaced by America Firsters who prioritise the homeland over international commitments such as a US military presence around the globe, a network of security alliances and support for global free trade.
The US security guarantee for its allies is now withdrawn; instead it demands they lift defence spending. But the imperial urge remains. America — in a pattern stretching back under both sides to Obama — still believes it can contain and disrupt the economic power of China, which is transforming into the global home of innovation and technological development. This is the result of China’s deep government investment and commitment to science and research, in contrast to the increasing hostility to science, and fact-based reasoning of any kind, in the US.
The spiralling death of Australian opposition. Part 1: How it happens
The Liberal Party has suffered back-to-back drubbings at the federal level, while opposition parties in Victoria and Western Australia endured wipeouts at three consecutive state elections. Meanwhile Tasmanian Labor will have lost five times in a row if July goes badly for them.
At the territory level, the Liberals haven’t held government in the Australian Capital Territory for just shy of a quarter of a century, while last year in the NT Labor was obliterated by the Country Liberal Party.
Here is Crikey‘s step-by-step guide to how Australia’s flailing opposition parties have thrown themselves into a death spiral. We’ll get to the impact this has in part two. But firstly — how does it happen?
Inside the fight to get Monash University to divorce fossil fuels for good
The building is gorgeous from every angle. The five-story structure on Monash University’s Clayton Campus houses 30 classrooms, including a 360-capacity lecture hall. Since construction finished in February 2020, it has won at least nine separate awards for its sustainable design that incorporates solar and passive systems to create ultra-low energy demand. The result is a sparkling feat of architecture and sustainable engineering, the pride of one of Australia’s most prestigious universities, which has positioned itself at the cutting edge of research on subjects like climate, ecology and sustainability.
The building is also named for the country’s biggest domestic gas producer, Woodside Energy — a company aggressively pursuing multibillion-dollar gas megaprojects at a time when the World Meteorological Organization has warned that global average temperatures are on track to reach 2 degrees warming by the end of the decade.
“It’s laughable — it’s so dystopian,” Carina Griffin says.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
As bombs rain down on Israel and Iran, Gaza’s carnage continues (The Sydney Morning Herald)
Chinese student jailed for 24 years for raping women in UK and China (Reuters)
Three years left to limit warming to 1.5C, leading scientists warn (BBC)
Climate misinformation turning crisis into catastrophe, report says (The Guardian)
Trump extends deadline for TikTok sale by 90 days (France24)
Trump’s intel chief Tulsi Gabbard is ‘off-message’ and out of favour, sources tell CNN (CNN)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Snubs, subs and Trump: Albanese’s NATO dilemma — James Massola (The Sydney Morning Herald): There are risks for Albanese in spending just a couple of days in Canberra before getting back on the plane to be in The Hague for next Tuesday’s summit, only to potentially be embarrassed by missing out again on a meeting with the unreliable president — though the risk is not as great as it might at first seem. The Australian prime minister will walk straight into a debate about US demands that European NATO members lift their defence spending to as much as 5% — not a conversation Albanese will want to be part of, given Hegseth’s comments and the fact that we currently spend about 2%.
And while some members of the government (and plenty of Australians) do not like Trump and think chasing a meeting amounts to kowtowing, they are wrong. The United States is Australia’s most important security partner, it will be for the foreseeable future, and no matter who is in the White House, the Australian prime minister needs a strong personal relationship with the president.
Meeting Trump has become a box Albanese needs to tick — Phillip Coorey (AFR): All we are told is that there are many conversations happening and that Keir Starmer has invited Albanese to London as well. Maybe to set him up with Trump?
One risk in all this is that he starts to look desperate, stalking even. Another is, with a huge travel schedule planned for the rest of the year, on top of the two big trips already undertaken — the Pope’s inauguration and the G7 — he reignites the “Airbus Albo” nonsense that he only recently defused by staying home for much of the six months leading to the election.
Moreover, all this activity and uncertainty underscores what is clearly a sensitivity, if not a growing sense of urgency, within government about the need to secure a meeting with this fellow.
