Trump to decide on action against Iran 'within next 2 weeks'

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) estimates that nearly 4.5 million Afghan nationals reside in Iran. Other sources suggest that the number could be much higher. But conditions have deteriorated for Afghan refugees in Iran.

They are only allowed to buy food at highly inflated prices and are banned from leaving Tehran, while returning to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan is not an option.

Read more about the fate of Afghans in Iran, as the country is embroiled in a dangerous conflict with Israel.

As the conflict between Israel and Iran continues, an information war is unfolding on the internet, with a significant amount of disinformation being spread by both sides.

DW fact checkers found the reuse of old videos posing as allegedly current material, as well as AI-generated videos created to spread false information. 

Read more about the disinformation campaign that is unfolding in real time.

US President Donald Trump seems conflicted on whether to join Israel's assault on Iran by bombing nuclear facilities buried deep underground.

His political supporters are split over the issue.

Trump himself promised during his election campaign not to get involved in foreign wars.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a press conference on Thursday that President Donald Trump will make a final decision on whether to strike Iran in the span of two weeks.

She added that Trump still sees a "substantial" chance that negotiations could achieve US and Israeli demands on Iran's nuclear program.

Trump has demanded that Iran immediately shut down its enrichment operations and any other potential for producing nuclear weapons.

"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," Leavitt quoted Trump as saying.

In particular, the US has been weighing whether to join Israel's attack by striking Iran's well-defended Fordo uranium enrichment facility, which is buried under a mountain and could be destroyed by US "bunker-buster" bombs.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier on Thursday that he trusted that Trump would "do what's best for America."

"I can tell you that they're already helping a lot," Netanyahu said.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called for moderation in Israel's campaign against Iran, according to German government sources who spoke with Reuters and German news agency DPA.

Merz expressed Germany's support in principle for Israeli military attacks on Iran's nuclear infrastructure during the call on Wednesday evening, which lasted around 20 minutes.

He expressed understanding of the threat posed to Israel but urged that the conflict be brought under control, according to DPA. The pair also discussed the war in Gaza.

The conversation follows Merz's praise for Israel for its campaign against the Iranian nuclear program, with the German leader having said that Iran was doing the "dirty work" for the West earlier this week.

His remarks sparked strong criticism in Germany, where many hoped for a more critical stance from Berlin in the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict.

The escalation of hostilities between Israel and Iran has put health facilities and access to healthcare at risk, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.

He said Thursday morning's attacks on Soroka Hospital in southern Israel injured dozens of people, some severely.

Around 250 people were moved to other facilities since the hospital was now only "partially functional," Tedros wrote.

The WHO chief said an airstrike on Tehran three days ago killed three members of the Iranian Red Crescent Society while they were reportedly rescuing other people. 

The same day, a hospital in Iran's western city of Kermanshah was also damaged when Israel struck the region, with around 15 staff and patients injured, according to the WHO chief.

"The best medicine is peace," Tedros wrote.

The widescale and continuing attacks by Israel and Iran on each other's territories, now in their seventh day, "risk setting the whole region ablaze," Volker Türk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said in a statement.

Türk said the extensive airstrikes, missiles and drone attacks have "already caused significant harm beyond military objectives." Hospitals, residential buildings and water infrastructure have all been destroyed or damaged by the attacks. 

Türk said many civilians were being displaced by the conflict, notably from the Iranian capital, Tehran, where the streets were empty after evacuation warnings were issued covering wide swathes of the city.

"It is appalling to see how civilians are treated as collateral damage in the conduct of hostilities. Threats and inflammatory rhetoric by senior officials on both sides suggest a worrying intention to inflict harm on civilians," Türk said.

He called on both sides to exercise maximum restraint and to return to the negotiating table in good faith to prevent further escalation.

Iranians must continue acting with "strength" as they have up to this point, the Islamic Republic's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei posted to X.

"I would like to tell our dear nation that if the enemy senses that you fear them, they won’t let go of you," the post read. "Continue the very behavior that you have had up to this day; continue this behavior with strength."

Iran's foreign minister said the Iranian military "accurately eliminated" an Israeli military command post and also hit "another vital target."

The same missile strikes also damaged the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba. Israeli medics said three people were seriously injured while dozens more were affected by shrapnel or blast injuries.

Abbas Aragachi confirmed the damage in a post on X.

"The blast wave caused superficial damage to a small section of the nearby, and largely evacuated, Soroka military hospital," the Iranian foreign minister wrote.

Aragachi vowed to continue the fight against the Israeli army, asking Israeli citizens to "heed" Iranian evacuation orders and to "avoid proximity to military and intelligence sites."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would continue to work toward its goal of eliminating Iran's nuclear threat and didn't rule out the possibility of toppling the Iranian leadership during a visit to the Soroko Medical Center, which was struck as a wave of Iranian missiles hit several locations this morning.

"We are committed to destroying the nuclear threat, the threat of a nuclear annihilation against Israel," Netanyahu told reporters.

"Our goal is twofold — nuclear, ballistic missiles. We're going to remove them. We are in the process of completing the [removal of] this threat."

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said earlier this morning that the Iranian supreme leader "cannot continue to exist."

The US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria, Thomas Barrack, has issued a strong warning to Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, urging the group to stay out of the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran.

Speaking during a visit to Beirut on Thursday, Barrack said any involvement by the Iran-backed Shiite group would be "a very bad decision."

Hezbollah has condemned Israel’s strikes on Iran and its threats against Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Despite the rhetoric, the group has not launched direct military action.

Regional analysts say Hezbollah's current operational capacity remains limited after last year's conflict with Israel, reducing its ability to sustain a prolonged conflict.

Closing the Strait of Hormuz remains on the table as a possible response to hostile actions, according to one senior Iranian lawmaker.

"Closing down the Strait of Hormuz is one of the options Iran could take to respond against its enemies," Behnam Saeedi, a member of the Iranian Parliament's National Security Committee presidium, told the semi-official Mehr news agency on Thursday.

The strategic waterway handles around 20% of global daily oil shipments. Iran has repeatedly warned it could block the strait in response to Western pressure.

On Wednesday, shipping sources reported that commercial vessels were already steering clear of Iranian waters near the strait, reflecting growing tensions in the region.

US President Donald Trump and Iran's ayatollahs are playing a waiting game to determine their next move, former US National Security Adviser John Bolton said.

Speaking as a guest on DW's Berlin Briefing podcast, Bolton said he didn't believe his former boss "knows what to do as of the moment."

"He doesn't like to be in these kinds of situations where he has to make a choice," Bolton said of Trump.

Iran has warned the United States against entering the war in support of Israel, stating it is prepared to act if tensions escalate.

"He currently believes, I think, that if he threatens the use of force, that this will finally induce the ayatollahs to be serious about negotiating the end of the nuclear weapons program. He's wrong on that because they're not going to negotiate the end of the program ... so he's waiting for them and they're waiting for him," Bolton said.

Bolton also commented on a planned meeting between the foreign ministers of Germany, France and the UK with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, scheduled for Friday. He said the meeting "will not succeed" in finding a diplomatic solution.

"There's no point for the Iranians to negotiate with the Europeans. The Europeans don't pose any threat."

Iran has said the main target of a missile strike that hit a hospital in southern Israel was a nearby military and intelligence base — not the medical facility itself.

A hospital in southern Israel and two towns near Tel Aviv were struck after a barrage of Iranian missiles. Israeli emergency services say more than 40 people have been injured.

"The main target of the attack was the Israeli Army Command and Intelligence Base (IDF C4I) and the Army Intelligence Camp in Gav-Yam Technology Park, located in the vicinity of the Soroka Hospital," Iran's state news agency IRNA reported Thursday.

It added that the hospital was "exposed only to the blast wave" and described the intended target as a military facility.