Trump Delays Planned Iran Strike Amid Renewed
Nuclear Negotiations
President Trump has repeatedly said
he’ll restart military action against Iran, only to stop short of plunging the
United States directly back into an unpopular war.
·
Trump stated that leaders from Qatar, Saudi Arabia
and the United Arab Emirates requested additional time to negotiate a nuclear
agreement with Iran.
·
According to Trump, the United States had been
preparing a “very major attack” but delayed it because there appeared to be “a
very good chance” for a negotiated settlement.
·
Since launching military operations alongside
Israel on 28 February 2026, Trump has repeatedly alternated between threats of
escalation and efforts to avoid a prolonged war.
·
The Iran conflict has now entered its third month,
significantly longer than Trump’s original estimate of a four-to-five-week
campaign.
·
U.S. officials stated that military options under
consideration included strikes on Iranian ballistic missile facilities and
other strategic targets.
·
Trump reiterated that any agreement must
permanently prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, which remains the
central obstacle in negotiations.
·
Earlier on social media, Trump instructed military
officials to prepare for a “full, large scale assault of Iran” if an acceptable
deal is not reached.
·
Some U.S. officials cautioned that Trump’s public
statements could represent strategic misdirection and that military strikes
could still proceed.
Military Situation and Iranian Response
·
U.S. military officials acknowledged that Iran has
demonstrated significant resilience despite extensive bombing campaigns.
·
The Pentagon estimates that approximately 13,000
targets inside Iran have been struck, including naval assets and senior
military and intelligence leadership.
·
The conflict reportedly resulted in the death of
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei after nearly 37 years in power.
·
Despite heavy military damage, U.S. officials said
Iran’s nuclear stockpile remains intact.
·
Iranian forces reportedly used the cease-fire
period to:
o
Reopen buried missile facilities
o
Reposition mobile missile launchers
o
Adapt tactics against U.S. air operations
·
U.S. military officials said many Iranian ballistic
missile systems are hidden inside fortified underground mountain facilities
that are difficult to destroy completely.
·
American officials also warned that Iranian air defenses became more effective after studying U.S. aircraft
flight patterns, potentially with assistance from Russia.
·
The downing of a U.S. F-15E fighter and damage to
an F-35 reportedly exposed vulnerabilities in American operational tactics.
Economic and Political Fallout
·
The war remains deeply unpopular domestically in
the United States.
·
A New York Times/Siena poll found that 64% of
voters believe Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran was wrong, with many
concerned about economic costs.
·
Negotiations regarding Iran’s nuclear programme and
the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz remain stalled.
·
U.S. officials warned that Iran still retains the
capability to:
o
Block the Strait of Hormuz
o
Attack Gulf energy infrastructure
o
Threaten U.S. aircraft and regional military assets
·
Continued instability around Hormuz has contributed
to:
o
Higher oil and natural gas prices
o
Rising freight and insurance costs
o
Greater volatility in global energy and trade
markets
·
The conflict is increasingly viewed as both a
military confrontation and a major threat to global economic stability and
energy security.
[ABS News Service/19.05.2026]
President
Trump said Monday that he had authorized a new wave of attacks against Iran
this week but that he was holding off to make room for “serious negotiations,”
after he said three Gulf leaders requested more time to work out a nuclear
deal.
Mr.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to launch new strikes, only to pull back at the
last minute from plunging the United States back into an unpopular, expensive
war. On Monday, he confirmed plans to strike and canceled
them at the same time.
“We
were getting ready to do a very major attack tomorrow, and I put it off for a
little while, hopefully maybe forever, but possibly for a little while, because
we’ve had very big discussions with Iran, and we’ll see what they amount to,”
Mr. Trump told reporters.
When
Mr. Trump launched the war alongside Israel on Feb. 28, he estimated that it
would end in four to five weeks. The conflict is now in its third month, and
Mr. Trump is caught between dueling impulses: to
force Iran into submission, and to declare victory and move on.
The
result has been wildly contradictory statements about the war — at one point
Mr. Trump said the war was “over” but the United States still needed to finish
the job — and bombastic threats like the one he issued in April, when he warned
that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”
(He backed down before his self-imposed deadline.)
U.S.
military officials say that the Iranian regime has demonstrated enormous
resilience and the ability to inflict significant damage to the region and on
the global economy. And so far, Iran’s nuclear stockpile has not been touched.
Still,
the military campaign has hit Iran hard: the Pentagon estimates it has
destroyed some 13,000 targets, eviscerated the country’s Navy and killed
high-level military and intelligence leaders, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
the nation’s supreme leader for almost 37 years.
The
war remains deeply unpopular at home. A New York Times/Siena poll found that 64
percent of voters said Mr. Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran was the
wrong one, with a majority of voters registering discontent about the economic
costs associated with the conflict.
As
the fallout continues, negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program and the Strait of
Hormuz have stalled. Mr. Trump has rejected multiple proposals from Iran,
demanding more concessions on their nuclear program. On Monday, Mr. Trump said
the leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates asked him to
postpone military strikes because they believed they could strike a deal with
Iran that would satisfy the United States.
“So I was called by
these three countries, plus others, and they’re dealing directly with our
people, and right now Iran, and there seems to be a very good chance that they
can work something out,” Mr. Trump said. “If we can do that without bombing the
hell out of them, I’d be very happy.”
Mr.
Trump reiterated that he would require any deal to prohibit Iran from obtaining
nuclear weapons. That very demand, however, has been among the biggest
impediments to an agreement between the United States and Iran, as the two
countries have been unable to come to terms on a nuclear deal.
Mr.
Trump did not specify what targets the United States had planned to strike on
Tuesday, but officials said the military had developed a variety of options,
including targeting the country’s ballistic missile sites.
Earlier,
on social media, Mr. Trump said he told his top military officials to prepare
for a “full, large scale assault of Iran” if “an acceptable Deal is not
reached.”
Some
U.S. officials cautioned that Mr. Trump’s public pronouncement could be a form
of misdirection and that he could still move ahead with strikes. The officials
noted that in February, American and Iranian officials planned a round of
negotiations just days before the United States and Israel started the war.
Iran
has used the monthlong cease-fire with the United States to dig out scores of
bombed ballistic missile sites, move mobile missile launchers, and, despite
significant losses, adjust its tactics for any resumption of strikes, said a
U.S. military official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss
operational matters.
Many
of Iran’s ballistic missiles were deployed from deep underground caves and
other facilities carved out of granite mountains that are difficult for
American attack aircraft to destroy, the official said. As a result, the United
States largely bombed the portals of the sites, collapsing and burying them,
but not destroying them. Iran has now dug out a significant number of those
sites.
Iranian
commanders, possibly with Russian help, studied the flight patterns of American
fighter jets and bombers, the U.S. military official said. The official warned
that the downing of the F-15E jet last month and the groundfire that struck an
F-35 revealed that American flight tactics had become too predictable in ways
that allowed Iran to defend against them more capably.
Perhaps
most important, the U.S. military official said that while five weeks of
intensive bombing may have killed several Iranian leaders and commanders, the
war has left a more hardened, resilient adversary. The official added that the
Iranians had repositioned many of their remaining arms and instilled a belief
that Iran can successfully resist the United States, whether by effectively
blocking the Strait of Hormuz, attacking energy infrastructure in neighboring Gulf states or threatening U.S. aircraft.