According to several reports, President Donald Trump's attention during the last week focused on the climbing crisis between Israel and Iran. Between the meetings he had in Canada Monday, at the G7 summit, he constantly asked the new information to the Aghiotants. This week he spent more time in the situation room (crisis room-n.red.), Located at the basement of the White House, than it has been since the beginning of the second term, writes CNN.
Thus, it seemed somewhat strident on Wednesday, not for an information related to the crisis, but to supervise the installation of masts of almost 30 meters in the courtyard of the White House. “They are the best masts in the country, even in the world. They are conical, they have a beautiful peak. It is a delightful project for me,” he told the breeding.
The postponement of the attack gave him a maneuver space
The break from the discussions on Iran lasted about an hour, during which the president wanted to get his hands on the grass on the southern lawn of Alba's house.
One day later, the president decided not to decide. He dictated a statement to the Karoline Leavitt press secretary announcing that he would postpone a blow against Iran for two weeks to see if a diplomatic resolution is possible.
The decision was announced after another meeting in Sition Room, where the president spent much of the week evaluating the appeals and asking officials about the potential consequences of each of them.
After using a warrior rhetoric – including a warning of 10,000,000 inhabitants of Tehran – the postponement gave Trump a maneuver while continuing to evaluate the options presented by his generals in recent days.
It also gives more kind to the divergent factions in their own party to plead the position directly to the president, after becoming obvious that Trump took the launch of bombs on Iran's nuclear installations. The US President refused to publicly choose a party camp and spent the week alternating threats on social networks with the concerns expressed in a restricted framework that an attack could drag the United States in a prolonged war.
The people he had almost
Around the table in the situation Room, he was mainly based on CIA director John Ratcliffe and the president of the Chiefs of General Staff, General Dan Caine, to discuss his options, sources close to the situation said. His special emissary Steve Witkoff corresponded with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchchi to determine if there is space to resume diplomatic contacts that had been unlocked before Israel's attacks began.
Other officials were publicly left aside. Twice this week, Trump has rejected the evaluations offered by Tulsi Gabbard, the head of the information community, about the stage of Iran on obtaining the nuclear weapon.
Gabbard said in March that information services have established that Iran does not build such a weapon. Trump challenged this publicly, on Friday. “Well, the information community is wrong,” Trump told reporters in New Jersey, asking the reporter who is the official who said something. When he was told to be Gabbard, Trump replied, “Mistake.”
On the other hand, while taking into account actions that will have consequences for years, Trump seems to be based first and foremost on his instincts, who told him to postpone the order of a blow that could change the geopolitics.
When national security officials told Trump during a visit to Camp Davis, at the beginning of the month, that it is imminent to launch an attack on Iran, it was not a big surprise. Trump's advisers have been preparing for months for the possibility of Israel to speculate the momentary weakness of Iran – his regional allies have been decimated in the last year – to launch an attack.
According to a CNN source, its counselors have previously resolved their position differences before presenting the president's possible plans. From Camp David, Trump spoke to Benjamin Netanyahu, who confirmed the intention to declare a campaign against Israel.
Western allies, held in uncertainty
Ten days later, with the Israeli attack in full swing, Trump met in Canada with G7 allies, who hoped to decipher his plans about what they intend to do. In meetings with closed doors, European leaders have tried to find out if Trump is tempted to order underground nuclear installations. They tried to convince him to sign a common statement, which demanded that “resolving the Iranian crisis lead to a wider disassembly of the Middle East.”
Trump did not disclose his position, Western officials said. Instead, he left the summit earlier. In the middle of the week, with an Iran who only gave vague signs that he was willing to negotiate, Trump's patience for a diplomatic solution seemed to end, and many of his allies believed to be about an attack on Iran. “It's very late, you know? It's very late to negotiate,” Trump said on Wednesday at the mast installation event.
In the private meetings of that day, Trump seemed convinced of the need to eliminate the installations from Forddo, and in public he said that the United States had the necessary fire. “We are the only ones who have the ability to do it, but that does not mean that I will do it. Everyone asked me, but I did not make a decision,” Trump said in the Oval Office, during a meeting with players of the Italian football team Juventus.
“I just want to play football”
At one point, Trump returned to players during a discussion about the B-2 undetectable bomber, the only plane that could wear a bomb capable of destroying the bunker of the Iranian Uranium enrichment. “If you were undetected, you would never lose, did you?”, Asked the players, without anyone to answer.
“It was a little strange. When he started talking about politics with Iran, it was a bit … I just want to play football,” said Timothy Weah, one of the players.
During this time, Trump received messages from both camps in the party, some Republicans being worried about the prospect of a war that lasts for many years.
He was also called by senator Lindsey Graham, one of the prominent supporters of the attack. “I think when he says without nuclear weapons for Iran, he speaks seriously. He gave them a chance for diplomacy. I think they made a calculation error regarding President Trump,” Graham said.
Meeting with Steve Bannon
One of the strongest voices against an attack, Trump's former strategist, Steve Bannon, took lunch on the White House on Thursday. Bannon did not reveal what he talked to Trump, but the day before he stated, at a round table, that involvement in an open conflict with Iran would be to repeat a historical mistake. “The Israelis have to finish what they have started. We cannot do this again, we will tear the country. We cannot have another Iraq,” Bannon said at a breakfast organized by Christian Science Monitor.
The whirlwind of opinions, options and tips is not new for Trump, but the answer may not be easy to find this time. The decision of Israel to launch the attacks, although it was not a surprise, came despite his public calls for restraint, and in Iran has an opponent with a long history in increasing positions when he is under the pressure of the United States.
On Friday, Trump said that it would be difficult to ask Netanyahu to soften the attacks in favor of diplomacy, given the success of Israel in conflict. He also said that the two -week window set the day before is the maximum period of time it gives to diplomacy, keeping the option of an attack before the expiration of this range.
The president could not say whether the decision he has in front is the most important since he is president, but trying to find a balance between stopping Iran nuclear ambitions and keeping the US outside the war, he offered an assessment of what he wants to be his inheritance.
“Always a pacifier. Sometimes you need a certain hardness to make peace, but always a pacifier,” Trump said.
