Iran Takes Credit for Trump Backing Down on New Planned Attacks

One day after warning Americans to get out of the Middle East ahead of new attacks by the United States, President Trump has once again put the kibosh on his plan to carry out significant military action. The reversal has given Iranian officials the opportunity to take credit for another American turnaround.Saying that Iran has once more agreed to negotiate over the opening of the Strait of Hormuz and an end to its nuclear ambitions, the president, who a day earlier had warned of expected reprisals from Iran in the region, said he will “cancel the attack, subject to being able to rapidly make a DEAL.”“The U.S.A. is locked and loaded and ready to go against the Islamic Republic of Iran, at levels of Military Terror, Strength, and Power not seen since World War II. Despite this, we have just been asked by Iran, and other Middle Eastern Countries, to hold off any attack in that the perimeters of a deal has been agreed to,” Mr. Trump said in a Truth Social post Saturday night. He added that Israel “joins me in this commitment.” Ahead of the warnings of new strikes, the UAE had pressed Mr. Trump to re-up significant military action, saying Iran would never submit to compromise unless compelled, according to The Wall Street Journal. The message contrasted with others in the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia, which says it wishes to prevent an escalation of hostilities in the area even after conducting joint operations in Iraq last week following an Iranian strike on its oil facilities. Saudi Arabia’s Royal Highness, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, spoke to the president after Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi exchanged communications with Saudi and Qatari leaders on Saturday.The crown prince’s conversation with the president emphasized “the need to prioritize dialogue to reduce escalation and the importance of making every possible effort to achieve calm that paves the way for diplomatic solutions, preserves the region’s security and stability, and prevents a wider conflict whose repercussions would affect regional and international security and stability,” reads a statement from the kingdom.Mr. Trump’s decision, of which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office was reportedly unaware until after the announcement was made on the president’s social media platform, was depicted as a withdrawal by Iranian media. Iran’s Fars News, closely tied to the Iranian regime, also claimed that any negotiations on Hormuz are false. Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officials have also suggested that the Iranian military could attack preemptively if a deal is not reached on reopening the Strait of Hormuz. A spokesman for the Iranian parliament’s national security commission, Hassan Ghashghavi, however, reportedly affirmed in a video that an effort is underway, “particularly by the mediators,” to revive the 14-point agreement at the center of a May ceasefire.“They know that the main issue and, in fact, the key to the matter right now is the issue of the Strait of Hormuz, so yes, there is an exchange of views,” Mr. Ghashghavi said.Mr. Trump’s conflicting messages have offered little solace to lawmakers at home and analysts abroad, who say his indecision suggests that he either doesn’t have a strategy for ending the standoff in the strait or Iran’s nuclear ambitions, doesn’t have the stomach for war, or doesn’t have a strong interest in the outcome either way.“The phrase about ‘fool me once’ comes to mind. I’m just not sure yet who should feel shame,” writes Israeli analyst Amit Segal, who notes that Israeli intelligence officials estimate that keeping Iran isolated would cause the regime’s bankruptcy by year’s end. If the president is attempting to conjure a deal from thin air, “by any means necessary, then he has indeed been fooled a second time, and the shame is his,” Mr. Segal writes. The public, however, is the mostly likely fool, he continues. “We should hesitate to treat another bargain between a fundamentalist regime and the most fickle president in memory as carved in stone.”

Iran Takes Credit for Trump Backing Down on New Planned Attacks

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