The United States deliberately kept its strikes on Iran limited and gave Tehran advance notice to avoid
By Bernard Moerdler,
The United States deliberately kept its strikes on Iran limited and gave Tehran advance notice to avoid collapsing nuclear diplomacy, Axios reported. Around 5:00 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, as U.S. fighter jets were already on their way, the White House messaged Iran that it would target only military facilities, according to Axios's Barak Ravid. A U.S. official said that had the pilots been killed, "we would have been in a whole different place today." Several hours before the strikes, the White House made a final attempt to get Iran's answer on Trump's latest proposal, telling Tehran that "time was running out," the report said; Iran said it did not yet have an answer and warned it would respond to any U.S. attack, which it ultimately did in a limited way.
The strikes followed a nearly two-week diplomatic stalemate, Axios reported. After a May 29 meeting in the Situation Room, Trump sent Iran a request for two amendments to the draft memorandum of understanding to end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz: that Iran down-blend its enriched uranium within 60 days and commit not to toll ships passing through the strait. In return, Trump was willing to allow the down-blending to take place on Iranian soil under IAEA supervision, a shift from his earlier insistence that it be done abroad. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told mediators he would need four or five days to respond, according to a regional source and a U.S. official cited by Axios, a delay that stretched to nearly two weeks as Trump grew frustrated with coverage of his unfulfilled promises of a deal and with criticism that he was going soft on Iran.
A further sticking point was Iran's demand, in public and in private, that some of its frozen assets be released upfront, Axios reported. Trump's position was that any release would come only after Iran met certain commitments, and a U.S. official said Trump was frustrated by the Iranian comments but that Iran could still secure billions in frozen funds by beginning to meet his nuclear demands.
Topics: Iran, Strait of Hormuz, Diplomacy
Reported by Bernard Moerdler for Bernie News Network. See our editorial standards and corrections policy.