by R. Cort Kirkwood, The New American:
President Trump “waved off” a planned Israeli strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, a move that terminated what The New York Times has reported was “months of internal debate” to settle for diplomacy over Israel’s plan to vaporize the facilities.
The startling revelation also revealed that military authorities moved forces to support a strike. But Vice President J.D. Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard pushed Trump to oppose it. The attack was set for May.
For now, it appears that Trump will keep his promise to keep the United States out of more wars.
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NEW — Israel planned to strike Iran’s nuclear sites as early as next month but President Trump balked, opting for now to try to negotiate a deal with Iran instead w/@julianbarnes, @ronenbergman, @maggieNYT https://t.co/5J3L3wC7IM
— Eric Schmitt (@EricSchmittNYT) April 17, 2025
“Fault Lines”
Inside the administration were “fault lines between historically hawkish American cabinet officials and other aides more skeptical that a military assault on Iran could destroy the country’s nuclear ambitions and avoid a larger war, the Times reported.
For now, officials have reached a “rough consensus” against a strike and Iran is willing to negotiate, the newspaper continued.
Importantly, Trump’s blocking the attack avoided the United States becoming involved in a wider war with Iran:
Israeli officials had recently developed plans to attack Iranian nuclear sites in May. They were prepared to carry them out, and at times were optimistic that the United States would sign off. The goal of the proposals, according to officials briefed on them, was to set back Tehran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon by a year or more.
Almost all of the plans would have required U.S. help not just to defend Israel from Iranian retaliation, but also to ensure that an Israeli attack was successful, making the United States a central part of the attack itself.
Trump has undoubtedly enraged the neoconservative-neoliberal globalist alliance that seeks to involve the United States in wars across the globe, most notably with Ukraine in its losing fight against Russia.
That aside, the Times reported that Iran has a “deadline of just a few months” to craft a settlement regarding its nuclear program. And Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the United States wouldn’t support an attack just before he landed in Washington, D.C., for a meeting last week.
“In a statement delivered in Hebrew after the meeting, Mr. Netanyahu said that an agreement with Iran would work only if it allowed the signers to ‘go in, blow up the facilities, dismantle all the equipment, under American supervision with American execution,’” the Times reported.
Israel had been planning the attack for some time, “rehearsing bombing runs and calculating how much damage it could do with or without American help,” the newspaper continued:
But support within the Israeli government for a strike grew after Iran suffered a string of setbacks last year.
In attacks on Israel in April, most of Iran’s ballistic missiles were unable to penetrate American and Israeli defenses. Hezbollah, Iran’s key ally, was decimated by an Israeli military campaign last year. The subsequent fall of the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria eliminated a Hezbollah and Tehran ally and cut off a prime route of weapons smuggling from Iran.
Air defense systems in Iran and Syria were also destroyed, along with the facilities that Iran uses to make missile fuel, crippling the country’s ability to produce new missiles for some time.
The Israelis revealed to American officials a plan to dispatch commandos, with American bombers supporting, to destroy subterranean nuclear facilities.
American Help Ready
Top American officials, including General Michael Kurilla, chief of Central Command, and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, were ready to help Israel, the Times reported. The USS Carl Vinson moved to the Arabian Sea, and two Patriot missile batteries and a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system also went to the area.
As well, the United States stationed “B-2 bombers capable of carrying 30,000-pound bombs essential to destroying Iran’s underground nuclear program” at the U.S. base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
Officials also considered moving fighter aircraft to the area, possibly to Israel.
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