Middle East crisis live: Lebanon hit by one of the heaviest days of Israeli bombing in weeks

Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio , added that there has been “some progress” made between the US and Iran towards reaching a deal.

He reiterated that Washington would “prefer the negotiated, diplomatic route and we’re going to give it every chance to succeed”.

But he also warned that Trump has “other options available ... if that doesn’t work”.

He told reporters at the cabinet meeting:

double quotation mark If there’s an agreement to be made, we want that to be made. I think there’s been some progress and some interest, and we’ll see over the next few hours and days whether progress can be made.

Rubio also repeated Trump’s so-called red line that Iran “cannot ever have a nuclear weapon”.