Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel asked the president to postpone any planned attack. Israeli and Arab officials fear Iran could retaliate by striking their countries.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has asked President Trump to postpone any plans for an American military attack on Iran, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday, even as the Iranian government continues to grapple with nationwide protests.
Mr. Netanyahu spoke to Mr. Trump on Wednesday, the same day the American president said he had received information from “very important sources on the other side” that Iran had stopped killing protesters and was not going forward with executions. That appeared to signal that Mr. Trump was backing away from a potential U.S. attack on Iran, which he has been weighing for days.
However, Mr. Trump sent a similar ambiguous signal last June even after he had largely made up his mind to order an attack on Iran. And a senior U.S. official said late Wednesday that Mr. Trump had not set aside the military options his commanders had presented in recent days, and that whether he ordered an attack depends on what Iranian security agencies do next in regard to the mass protests.
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Egypt, all partners of Washington, have also been asking the Trump administration not to attack Iran, said an official from a Gulf Arab nation. Senior officials from those countries have been calling U.S. officials with that message over the last two days, the official said. They have told the Americans that a U.S. attack could lead to a wider regional conflict.
At the same time, those Arab nations have been telling Iranian officials not to attack countries in the region if the United States decides to strike Iran, the official said. The four nations have been coordinating their messaging to both Washington and Tehran, the official said. Two diplomats in the region also said several Arab nations have pressed the Trump administration not to attack Iran.
