WASHINGTON, DC - In a bid to defuse speculation, U.S. President Donald Trump says he will make his decision on whether to have the U.S. go to war with Iran within two weeks.

The delay will also allow negotiations to take place, the president said late Thursday.

"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 president said in his statement, which was relayed to reporters by press secretary Karoline Leavitt at the White House briefing room on Thursday..

It is not known whether Itan will agree to such talks, or who the U.S. will negotiate with as Israel last Friday assassinated the lead negotiator in the U.S.-Iran negotiations, in its first wave of airstrikes.

Israel also assassinated the lead negotiator in the Gaza ceasefire talks, also brokered by the United States. In that event, the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, took place in Iran. Haniyeh was in Iran for the funeral of the former president who had died in a plane crash, described at the time as an accident. The events that have followed have thrown suspicion on that account.

Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas politicalm bureau, was even believed by Israel not to have known of the 7 October 2023 attacks in advance. Nonetheless, as he endeavoured to reach a ceasefire, Israel assassinated his two sons and 4 grandchildren, before deciding to take out the man himself.

When ceasefire negotiations with Lebanon's Hezbollah got underway, as they made progress Israel assassinated the the main decision-maker, Secretary-General of that group, Hssan Nasrallah, killing more than 200 others in a massive bombing in Beirut in the process.

Who will now take the lead in negotiations with the U.S. is not known, but it is likely he will need to put his oon affairs in order first.

Meantime the pressure on Donald Trump to enter the war with Iran, and the pressure not to has escalated. While many of Israel's backers such as Senators Lindsay Graham and Ted Cruz are on board, commentators such as Tucker Carlson and Steven Bannon are firmly opposed.

Many critics question the validity of Israel's claims that Iran is close to having nuclear weapons when the country denies even having any ambitions for one. The IAEA has found no evidence of Iran pursuing nuclear weapons, nor does U.S. intelligence. It is only Israel that puts forward the case.

Many in the U.S. fear Iran will be Trump's Iraq if he goes down tha track of attacking Iran, without there being any credible evidence that there are nuclear weapons, or even plans for them. 

Much of the intelligence that was presented by the Bush-Cheney administration to justify the Iraq invasion came from Israel. Some say now it was flawed, but most people around the world know it was largely fabricated and manipulated.

Senator Bernie Sanders has warned the U.S, not to go down the same path and not to pay heed to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who has been crying wolf on Iran's supposed nuclear weapons for more than  3 decades..

"In 2002, in testimony to Congress urging the United States to go to war in Iraq, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu stated: "There is no question whatsoever that Saddam is seeking… nuclear weapons…. If you take out Saddam's regime, I guarantee you that it will have enormous positive reverberations,"" Sanders said in s statement Thursday.

"Netanyahu was wrong. Very wrong. The war in Iraq resulted in 4,492 U.S. military deaths, over 32,000 wounded, and a cost of roughly three trillion dollars.Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis also died as a result of that tragic war. Netanyahu was wrong regarding the war in Iraq. He is wrong now. We must not get involved in Netanyahu's war against Iran," Sanders said.