President Donald Trump on Thursday announced he is giving Iran two weeks to re-engage with negotiations about its nuclear program. This move is reportedly aimed at preventing the creation of “another Libya” if further military action results in the destruction of the Iranian regime.
Trump’s announcement came amid military hostilities between Israel and Iran. Israel has been conducting airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear and military facilities over the past week to prevent the regime from acquiring nuclear capabilities.
During a press conference, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt recited Trump’s message in which he stated that “there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future,” which means Trump “will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.”
.@PressSec shares a message from President Trump: "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." pic.twitter.com/r3yVnbZHAC
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) June 19, 2025
Administration insiders told The New York Post that Trump does not want to repeat the same mistakes of the Obama administration, which took out former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in a comprehensive NATO bombing operation. Gaddafi’s subsequent death left a vacuum that various regional powers fought to fill, making the situation even worse.
The sources told The Post they heard Trump privately state that he was “worried about Iran becoming like Libya before Israel began its aerial assaulton Iran.”
However, another source told the outlet that if President Trump takes military action, it will come in the form of limited airstrikes to finish destroying Iran’s nuclear facilities at Fordow and Natanz using “bunker buster” bombs.
Trump fears turning Iran into "another Libya".
— US Ship of State (@US_ShipOfState) June 20, 2025
Via @nypost pic.twitter.com/Y3EbLDCHxF
“Libya was a much more extended kind of bombing commitment, and it ended up being regime change,” the individual explained, further noting that if the Iranian regime is ousted, “then it’s not on Trump, because that’s not the goal of his very limited strike.”
However, there is a concern that “we get somebody worse than Khamenei.”
Both Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have issued threats against Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. After Iran bombed an Israeli hospital, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told reporters that he had instructed the military that Khamenei “should not continue to exist,” which suggests that if the leader is killed, it would more likely be the work of the Israeli Defense Forces.
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