TOI correspondent from Washington: US President Donald Trump abruptly left the G-7 summit in Calgary on Monday night and returned to Washington DC to attend to security-related issues in the middle east, scuppering among others a bilateral engagement with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who arrived for the meeting even as Trump was winding down. In remarks to reporters on Air Force One on his way back Trump swatted down talk of bringing about a ceasefire between Israel and Iran and instead warned that Teheran could face punitive action from the US if it did not completely give up its quest for nuclear weapons. Israel-Iran conflict: Follow live updatesIn Calgary, Trump alarmed the world by urging “Everyone should immediately evacuate Teheran” at the tail end of a post that read: “Iran should have signed the ‘deal’ I told them to sign. What a shame, and waste of human life. Simply stated, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON.”

Speculation is rife in national security circles in Washington that the US will join, or supplement, the Israeli attack to end Iran’s nuclear program in one decisive move: Dropping a bunker-buster carried by American B-2 bombers — the only weapon short of a nuclear bomb that can destroy a deeply buried nuclear enrichment facility at Fordo that is said to be the ground zero of Iran’s purported bomb-making effort.Also read: Trump slams Iran for ignoring nuclear deal; US skips G7’ de-escalation callFormally called the Massive Ordnance Penetrator, or the GBU-57, the 20 feet long bunker-buster weights 13600 kgs and can be lifted only by a B-2 bomber, neither of which Israel has even though it is a close US ally. Some experts reckon the US would have to use several GBU-57s to accomplish the mission of entombing Fordo, which war hawks see as the only way to decisively end Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapon. Anything short of that will allow Iran to continue its pursuit of the atomic bomb.In talks with Iran before Israel hit the panic button, the US had insisted that Teheran entirely give up its nuclear fuel enrichment program, which Iran says is meant for its civilian reactors and is allowed under international law, but which Israel fears was being used to enrich fuel at higher levels to make nuclear weapons.“I’m not looking for a ceasefire, we’re looking at better than a ceasefire…a real end,” Trump told reporters, seeking a total surrender from Iran and smacking down on French President Emanuel Macron who said in Calgary that the US President exited the G-7 early to work on a ceasefire. The US President’s decision to support Israel’s attack on Iran and back it up heavy-duty munitions where his mouth is has alarmed several MAGA acolytes who are questioning the Israeli assessment and are suggesting Tel Aviv is suckering Trump into a war that the US has no business getting into. Among the first to break ranks is influential commentator Tucker Carlson, who went on a podcast with Steve Bannon (another isolationist), to argue that the US, already financially strapped, would only be weakened by getting involved in another war. “The United States should not at any level participate in a war with Iran. No funding, no American weapons, no troops on the ground. If Israel wants to wage this war, it has every right to do so. It is a sovereign country, and it can do as it pleases. But not with America’s backing,” Carlson said. A stung Trump, shot back with a post saying “Someone please explain to kooky Tucker Carlson that Iran can not have a nuclear weapon!”Carlson and some other MAGA principals have contended that the threat of Iran acquiring nukes is exaggerated and that there is no credible evidence that it is close to making a bomb. In fact, in his comments on Air Force One, Trump dismissed the assessment of his own intelligence czar Tulsi Gabbard, who testified in March that Iran wasn’t building a nuclear weapon.“I don’t care what she said. They were very close to getting a nuke,” Trump said, hewing to the hardline Israeli stance that Iran was just days away from making a nuclear weapon.Trump still has the support of Washington’s phalanx of war hawks, including many in a subservient congress. Among the few lawmakers who have dared to come out against Trump gradually putting US into the warzone is Marjorie Taylor Greene, who said “Anyone slobbering for the U.S. to become fully involved in the Israel/Iran war is not America First/MAGA.”“Wishing for murder of innocent people is disgusting. We are sick and tired of foreign wars. All of them. And this one will quickly engulf the Middle East, BRICS, and NATO as countries are required to take a side,” she warned. Meanwhile, the Pentagon diverted the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and other resources elsewhere in Asia and Europe to the middle east. “Protecting US forces is our top priority and these deployments are intended to enhance our defensive posture in the region,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, asserting that it was also meant to “set the conditions for a deal.”