Middle East allies urged Trump to hold off on Iran strikes: Diplomat
WASHINGTON: Several Middle Eastern allies of the United States have urged the Trump administration to hold off on strikes against Iran for the government’s deadly crackdown on protesters, according to an Arab diplomat familiar with the matter.
Top officials from Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have raised concerns in the last 48 hours that a U.S. military intervention would shake the global economy and destabilize an already volatile region, said the diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the sensitive conversations.
Oil prices fell on Thursday as the markets appeared to take note of President Donald Trump’s shifting tone as a sign that he’s leaning away from attacking Iran after days of launching blistering threats at Tehran for its brutal crackdown.
Nevertheless, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday maintained that “all options remain on the table” for Trump as he deals with Iran.
“The truth is only President Trump knows what he’s going to do and a very, very small team of advisers are read into his thinking on that,” Leavitt said. She added, “He continues to closely monitor the situation on the ground in Iran.”
The nationwide protests challenging Iran’s theocracy appeared increasingly smothered Thursday, a week after authorities shut the country off from the world and escalated a bloody crackdown that activists say has killed at least 2,637 people.
The delicate diplomacy from Arab officials comes during a period of rhetorical whiplash from Trump.
Trump, in a matter of a day, went from offering assurances to Iranian citizens that “help is on its way” and urging them to take over their country’s institutions to abruptly declaring on Wednesday that 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.
The Arab officials also urged senior Iranian officials to quickly end the violent repression of protesters. They warned that any Iranian response to a U.S. action against the U.S. or other targets in the region would have significant repercussions for Iran, the diplomat said.
Asked about reports of allies asking Trump to hold off on the strikes at a White House briefing, Leavitt did not directly address the matter.
Ambassador Mike Waltz, the U.S. envoy to the United Nations, said military action is an option that remains in play.
“President Trump is a man of action, not endless talk like we see at the United Nations,” Waltz said in remarks at a meeting of the U.N. Security Council to discuss the Iran protests. “He has made it clear all options are on the table to stop the slaughter.”
But Trump himself appeared to send signals he could be backing away from a potential U.S. strike on Iran after days of threatening one was in the offing.
He took to social media to highlight a Fox News headline about the suspension of a death sentence for an Iranian shopkeeper, 26-year-old Erfan Soltani.
Iranian state media denied Soltani had been condemned to death.
