President Donald Trump on Wednesday sounded an ambiguous tone over whether the US would strike Iranian nuclear sites and said Tehran had made contact in a bid to negotiate.

His comments come a day after he appeared to be preparing for war and demanded the “unconditional surrender” of the Iranian government.

“You don’t know. I may do it, I may not do it – I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do,” Mr Trump said at the White House during a ceremony installing a new flagpole.

He said Iranian officials wanted to negotiate and had even proposed a meeting in the White House, but that it was “very late to be talking”. He added: “There’s a big difference between now and a week ago, right? Big difference.”

Iran’s mission to the UN denied having asked for a meeting with the White House. “No Iranian official has ever asked to grovel at the gates of the White House,” the mission wrote on X.

“Iran does NOT negotiate under duress, shall NOT accept peace under duress, and certainly NOT with a has-been warmonger clinging to relevance.”

The escalation comes on the sixth day of the Iran-Israel air war that threatens to destabilise the entire Middle East.

Mr Trump, who campaigned on a promise to bring peace to the world, had been in the process of advancing talks with Tehran that were aimed at limiting Iran’s nuclear programme.

But a sixth round of discussions scheduled for Oman on Sunday were cancelled after Israel launched air strikes on Iran on Friday.

On Tuesday, Mr Trump said America’s patience was “wearing thin” and held a meeting with his national security team to discuss options that included joining Israel in striking Iranian nuclear sites.

“Two very simple words: unconditional surrender,” Mr Trump repeated on Wednesday. “That means I’ve had it. OK, I’ve had it, I give up. No more. Then we go blow up all the … nuclear stuff that’s all over the place there.”

The possibility of US involvement in yet another potentially prolonged war in the Middle East comes as Mr Trump appears to have quieted the dissenting voices of his staunchly anti-war and isolationist Maga base.

Asked whether he had spoken with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr Trump said: “He’s doing a good job, he has been treated very unfairly. There’s a wartime president and he’s going through this nonsense, ridiculous.”