Illustrative image. (Israeli Defense Forces)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked United States President Donald Trump over the past day to delay potential plans for an American strike on Iran, a senior U.S. official told The New York Times on January 15.
Trump has repeatedly threatened Iran since the start of the month over a wave of violent protests there, vowing to hold the government there accountable if protesters are killed. Recent reports from Iranian monitoring groups and officials suggest that over 2,000 people, including both protesters and security personnel, have been killed so far.
Tensions between the two sides escalated overnight, with the U.S. evacuating key bases in the Middle East and Iran closing its air base amid reports suggesting that an attack on the Islamic Republic was imminent.
According to The New York Times, Trump and Netanyahu spoke about the issue, on the same day that Trump announced he had heard “on good authority” that the killing of protesters in Iran had stopped — appearing to back away from his recent threats to attack.
Senior officials from American allies Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Egypt have also been urging the Trump administration not to attack Iran over the past several days, a Gulf Arab official told The New York Times, warning that such a move could trigger a wider regional conflict. Earlier reports indicated that Turkey also took part in the efforts.
A separate report by Israel’s Channel 12 said that after a series of overnight military consultations, Israel informed the U.S. that while it supports any decision, it is not currently pushing for a strike against Iran.
The news channel added, citing five sources involved in or familiar with White House discussions on the matter, that a U.S. attack remains on the table as Washington continues to assess the situation.
The U.S. and Israel are holding daily consultations, the report said, noting that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also spoke with Netanyahu the past day for reportedly the third conversation within six days.
While military options remain on the table for Trump, the current pause is also being viewed as an opening for diplomacy, according to Channel 12, which quoted a U.S. official as saying that the regime will collapse unless Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei agrees to speak directly with Trump.
Channel 12 added that Israeli officials believe the protests are being suppressed and have declined dramatically, and there is a dispute within Israel’s top leadership regarding the approach toward Iran.
Former Israeli strategic affairs minister Ron Dermer, who played a central role in the Iran file before leaving his position last year, is advocating for a more hawkish approach and conveying this to the Americans, according to the Hebrew channel.
The recent de-escalation by the U.S. and all the reports that followed appear to be more of a tactic to pressure Iran, or even a straight up attempt by Trump to deceive the Israeli Republic, just as he did before joining the Israeli war on the Islamic Republic last June.
The White House confirmed during the day that Trump hasn’t removed any options for responding to Iran’s crackdown on protests, warning of “grave consequences” if the repression turns deadly.
“The president and his team have communicated to the Iranian regime that if the killing continues, there will be grave consequences,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a daily briefing.
The press secretary added that Trump had received a message from the Iranian government that “killing and executions” would stop.
“The president understands today that 800 executions that were scheduled and supposed to take place yesterday were halted,” Leavitt said.
“The president and his team are closely monitoring this situation, and all options remain on the table for the president,” she added.
The U.S. military is indeed making costly preparations for an attack on Iran. The Pentagon has already ordered an additional guided missile destroyer, the USS Roosevelt, in addition to the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and its strike group into the Middle East, where two other guided missile destroyers, at least one nuclear attack submarine and the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier are currently deployed.
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essas execuções são jovens de idéias nazistas na cabeça financiados e treinados pelo mossad e pela cia pra matar pessoas no irã, todo mundo sabe disso. a mídia tradicional mente como mentem os sionistas o tempo todo. acham que somos tolos e não conhecemos a verdade. o plano deles falhou miseravelmente.
it’s just a public pr statement, obviously it means just as little as net and yohoos ridiculous “we don’t actually want the usa to pay for our defense” statement.
surely nobody takes these people seriously when they say this kind of nonsense?
it’s journalists stories .
trump$tein was in the middle of negotiating peace with iran which turned into locating sites to bomb before starting the 12 day war in june of last year…. just like his call to putin trying to locate where he was in his house so that nato could drone him… why do they bother throwing out any shred of hope for peace when they are pathological lying suicidal psychopaths that will never tell the truth?…
this sounds like a ruse to get iran to relax its defenses.
does it ? wow ! 👌 so clever. wouldn’t it be great if you wrote the news