Trump's Iran dilemma exposes bitter split in president's circle

The conflict has pitted the isolationist and hawkish wings of the US leader's party against one another.

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"I may do it, I may not do it," the Republican president said on Wednesday whether the US would join the conflict by targeting Iranian nuclear sites.

Trump often railed against "stupid endless wars" in the Middle East on the campaign trail, but has also maintained that Iran "can't have a nuclear weapon".

The possibility that he might draw the US into another foreign entanglement has pitted the isolationist and hawkish wings of his party bitterly against one another.

Among those that have expressed doubt about Iran's nuclear plans are Trump's Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who in March testified before Congress that while Iran's enriched uranium was at an all-time high, experts did not believe it was working on a nuclear weapon.