WASHINGTON >> President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he doesn’t want to carry out a U.S. strike on Iran but suggested he stands ready to act if it’s necessary to extinguish Iran’s nuclear program.

Trump continued his increasingly pointed warnings about the U.S. joining Israel in striking at Tehran’s nuclear program as Iran’s leader warned anew that the United States would be greeted with stiff retaliation if it attacks.

Meanwhile, Israel’s military said Wednesday that more than 50 of its warplanes had hit targets in the Iranian capital, Tehran, including a nuclear centrifuge plant. Iranian authorities did not comment on the claim, although the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that two centrifuge plants had been hit.

One building was struck at the Tehran Research Center, where advanced rotors for devices used to enrich uranium have been manufactured and tested, the IAEA said.A Washington-based Iranian human rights group said at least 639 people, including 263 civilians, have been killed in Iran and more than 1,300 wounded. In retaliation, Iran has fired some 400 missiles and hundreds of drones, killing at least 24 people in Israel and wounding hundreds. Some have hit apartment buildings in central Israel, causing heavy damage.

‘Nobody knows’

The stakes are high for Trump — and the world — as he engages in a push-pull debate between his goals of avoiding dragging the U.S. into another war and preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

“I’m not looking to fight,” Trump told reporters. “But if it’s a choice between fighting and having a nuclear weapon, you have to do what you have to do.”

Trump, who met with his national security aides for a second straight day in the White House Situation Room, also told reporters it’s not “too late” for Iran to give up its nuclear program.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers Wednesday that the Pentagon was providing possible options to Trump as he decides next steps on Iran.

“I may do it, I may not do it,” Trump said of a potential U.S. strike. “I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do.”

“Nothing is finished until it is finished,” he added, signaling a decision could soon. “The next week is going to be very big — maybe less than a week.”

No surrender from Iran

Trump also offered a terse response to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s refusal to heed to his call for Iran to submit to an unconditional surrender.

“I say good luck,” Trump said.

Khamenei earlier in the day warned that any U.S. strikes will “result in irreparable damage for them” and that his country would not bow to Trump’s call for surrender.

“Intelligent people who know Iran, the nation and the history of Iran, will never speak to this nation in the language of threats, because the Iranian nation cannot be surrendered,” Khamenei said in a televised statement. “The Americans should know that any U.S. military intervention will undoubtedly be accompanied by irreparable damage.”

Trump had said Tuesday the U.S. knows where Khamenei is hiding but doesn’t want him killed — “for now.”

“He is an easy target, but is safe there — We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now,” Trump said on social media.

Trump’s increasingly muscular comments toward the Iranian government follow him urging Tehran’s 9.5 million residents to flee the capital and he cut short his participation in an international summit to return to Washington for urgent talks with his national security team.

Diplomacy in the works

Trump said that the Iranian officials continue to reach out to the White House as they’re “getting the hell beaten out of them” by Israel. But he added there’s a “big difference between now and a week ago” in Tehran’s negotiating position.

“They’ve suggested that they come to the White House — that’s, you know, courageous,” Trump said.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations rejected Trump’s claim in a statement on social media: “No Iranian official has ever asked to grovel at the gates of the White House. The only thing more despicable than his lies is his cowardly threat to ‘take out’ Iran’s Supreme Leader.”

But a senior official from Iran’s Foreign Ministry, who asked that his name not be used because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said that Iran would be open to meeting with U.S. negotiators. The official said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi would accept such a meeting to discuss a ceasefire with Israel.

Wednesday evening, two planes belonging to the Iranian government landed in Oman after leaving Iranian airspace, according to FlightRadar24, a flight tracking service. A third plane, owned by Meraj Airlines, an Iranian company, also landed in Oman on Wednesday evening. Oman regularly mediates between Iran and the United States during times of tension. It was not known who was on the planes.

Gideon Saar, Israel’s foreign minister, told reporters that “no negotiations” were taking place with Iran, and that Israel’s military campaign would continue “until we will achieve our goals.”

Meanwhile, senior European diplomats are set to hold talks with Iran in Geneva on Friday, according to a European official familiar with the matter.

The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity, said the high-ranking diplomats from Germany, France and the United Kingdom as well as the European Union’s top diplomat will take part in the talks.

Also Thursday, the State Department began evacuating nonessential diplomats and their families from the U.S. embassy in Israel.

There was no indication of how many diplomats and family members departed on the flight or how many may have left by land routes to Jordan or Egypt.

The flight came shortly before U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee announced on X that the embassy was making plans for evacuations by plane and ship for private American citizens.

Airstrikes continue

Israeli forces have carried out round after round of airstrikes, killing at least 11 senior Iranian military commanders and several Iranian nuclear scientists, damaging nuclear enrichment sites, missile launchers and some energy infrastructure.

On Thursday, Israel’s military warned people to evacuate the area around Iran’s Arak heavy water reactor. The warning came in a social media post on X. It included a satellite image of the plant in a red circle like other warnings that preceded strikes.

Arak is 155 miles southwest of Tehran.

Iran has responded by firing missiles and drones at Israel, including about 30 ballistic missiles that were launched in two barrages after midnight and two waves of drones Wednesday morning. Most of the missiles and all the drones were intercepted by Israel’s air defenses, Israeli officials said.

Despite the danger from Iran’s ballistic missiles, morale among Israelis appeared to be soaring, with many expressing support for the war.

“There is unity from wall to wall in Israel over the campaign to remove the Iranian nuclear threat,” Matan Kahana, a centrist lawmaker and former fighter pilot who is part of the opposition to Netanyahu, said in an interview. “Now people are asking, ‘Why didn’t we do it earlier?’”

This report contains information from the New York Times.