A new Washington Post article says Trump seriously considered a limited U.S. military strike on Iran but ultimately stepped back, worried it could spiral into a long, destabilizing conflict. The turning point allegedly came after envoy Steve Witkoff received word—through Iranian officials—that planned mass executions had been canceled. “We’re going to watch and see,” Trump then told reporters in the Oval Office. Soon after, U.S. intelligence confirmed that the executions had not taken place.
Its sources say that Trump is enamored with precise, lightening quick operations, like last June’s bombing of Iran’s nuclear program or the kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro but was convinced that an attack on Iran supposedly to punish the regime for killing protestors would instead by long and messy though the military option is still on the table.
The president came face to face with the unpredictability of potentially destabilizing another Middle Eastern country and the limitations of even the vast American military machine, the Post adds, citing several of the more than a dozen unnamed current and former US and Middle East officials that Post reporters interviewed for the story.
