"Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!" Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on the evening of Monday, June 16, in the middle of the night in Iran. The wording of the statement displayed the ambiguous nature of the billionaire's position, at a time when the White House has seemed tempted to enter into war with Iran alongside Israel, to at least deliver a major blow to the regime's nuclear program. Shortly after, he announced his hasty departure from the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Canada, to meet with top US security officials in Washington.

What circumstances might lead the US to join the operation? "I don't want to talk about that," Trump said earlier on Monday. The security of American bases in the region is his absolute priority. "Iran is not winning this war," the president said, adding that, by contrast, Israel was "doing very well."

Meanwhile, the oldest American aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz, was in transit off the coast of Singapore, heading toward the Middle East. Around 30 refueling aircraft also left the US to move closer to the region. All this has led speculation to focus on the US's GBU-57 "bunker buster" bomb, a model that only the Pentagon possesses and that is capable of reaching the deepest areas of Iran's strategic Fordo nuclear site, the jewel of its nuclear program.

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