US President Donald Trump has urged a complete evacuation of the Iranian capital city of Tehran, as the conflict with Israel continues to escalate.
“Iran should have signed the ‘deal’ I told them to sign. What a shame, and waste of human life,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
“Simply stated, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. I said it over and over again!
READ MORE: Israel strikes state-run Iranian TV while live on air
“Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!”
Tehran is home to about 9.5 million people.
A new round of talks scheduled for the weekend between the US and Iran were scotched when Israel launched a series of missile strikes targeting sites and people connected to Iran’s nuclear program.
Trump abandoned an Obama-era nuclear agreement with Iran during his first time in 2018 and has been trying to establish a new one.
READ MORE: Trump taking on Apple with his own phone company
Prior to Israel’s strikes on Iran, he said he would prefer for no attack to go ahead as he was confident of reaching a “deal” with Tehran.
However, the White House has strongly emphasised its support for Israel in the days since.
At the G7 meeting in Canada, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz held an hour-long informal meeting soon after arriving at the summit to discuss the widening conflict in the Mideast, Starmer’s office said.
And Merz told reporters that Germany is planning to draw up a final communique proposal on the Israel-Iran conflict that will stress that “Iran must under no circumstances be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons-capable material.”
Trump, for his part, said Iran “is not winning this war. And they should talk and they should talk immediately before it’s too late.”
Asked what it would take for the US to get involved in the conflict militarily, Trump said, “I don’t want to talk about that.”
The White House has since flagged that Trump will leave the G7 meeting early to return to Washington, due to the ongoing Middle East crisis, according to the Associated Press.
DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.
