Trump May Postpone Planned Strikes on Iran — Reuters

The U.S. may not launch new strikes against Iran if Tehran refrains from provocations. At the same time, Washington does not rule out the use of military force.

According to three people familiar with the situation, U.S. President Donald Trump has told his senior advisers in recent days that he is considering not resuming large-scale attacks if Tehran or the Houthis it supports in Yemen do not engage in new provocations.

At the same time, his public statements remain contradictory: the president alternates between threatening new strikes and speaking of scaling back the military campaign.

Current and former U.S. officials note that Trump has yet to decide how to end the conflict that the U.S. launched alongside Israel in February.

The war remains unpopular, and Washington’s allies in the Middle East are urging the U.S. president not to return to full-scale hostilities.

Trump has acknowledged that he is taking his partners’ position into account. In a recent interview with sports commentator Stephen A. Smith, he stated: “I could put an end to this immediately, but at the request of the countries I seek to protect, we are doing this a little longer, a little more civilized.”

The White House emphasized that the final decision on next steps rests with the president. Officials there also stated that the U.S. holds a strong position, controls the Strait of Hormuz, and is monitoring the deteriorating economic situation in Iran.

“Only President Trump knows what he will do and when,” an administration official told Reuters.

As a reminder, U.S. President Donald Trump stated that the war with Iran is, in a military sense, effectively over. At the same time, total U.S. spending on the conflict as of October 16 was estimated at $47.1 billion.

Iran claimed to have struck a U.S. early-warning radar system in Bahrain. Meanwhile, U.S. Central Command denied that the system had been destroyed and reported that it had intercepted two Iranian attack drones headed for Bahrain.

Roman Hoffman, director of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, arrived in Washington, D.C., for meetings with senior officials in President Donald Trump’s administration regarding the war with Iran. The Jerusalem Post reported this, citing sources.