The “last minute” rescue intervention for the regime in Tehran. Who convinced Trump to abandon the military offensive

Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman led a successful “last-minute push” to persuade US President Donald Trump not to attack Iran, a senior Saudi official told AFP news agency on Thursday. Trump had previously suggested he would support the protesters in Iran with a possible attack on the regime in Tehran, but the three Gulf states asked him to “give Iran a chance to demonstrate its good intentions”.

According to the quoted Saudi official, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman have made efforts to dissuade the US president from attacking Iran, warning him of “serious repercussions in the region”.

The three Gulf countries “made intense last-minute diplomatic efforts to persuade President Trump to give Iran a chance to demonstrate its good intentions,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

On Wednesday, some personnel from the US military base Al-Udeid in Qatar were evacuated and employees of the US diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait were urged to exercise caution, the developments fueling fears of an imminent US attack on Iran.

On Thursday, a diplomatic source told the French news agency that the alert level at the Al-Udeid base had been lowered and that, gradually, “the planes are starting to resume their positions.”

A second diplomatic source said some soldiers and other personnel were returning to the military base in Qatar.

The United States has repeatedly threatened to intervene in the Iranian government's bloody crackdown on protesters, with Tehran saying it is ready to retaliate with strikes on US military and naval targets in the Middle East region.

Numerous US bases and facilities are located in the Gulf.

The White House leader said on Wednesday that he had been informed “by very important sources” that “the killing has stopped” in Iran and that the planned executions of arrested protesters would not eventually take place.

“We've been told quite categorically — but we'll find out what that means — that executions in Iran are stopping and they have stopped, and that there is no plan for executions. I've been told that from a reliable source, and I hope that's true,” the US leader told reporters in the Oval Office. Asked who the people were who told him the killings in Iran had stopped, Trump described those people as “very important sources on the other side.”

However, in his reaction on Wednesday, the American president did not rule out a possible US military action, saying that “we will follow the evolution of the process”, to then mention that the administration in Washington received a “very good statement” from Iran. “We'll watch the situation and see how it develops, but we got a very good statement from people who are aware of what's going on,” Trump said.

The White House leader's remarks appeared to signal a cautious easing of fears that the crisis in Iran risks degenerating into a wider regional confrontation and the need for US military intervention.

“A White Night”

The efforts made in the Gulf were aimed at “avoiding an uncontrollable situation in the region”, the Saudi official quoted by AFP also said on Thursday.

“We told Washington that an attack against Iran would open the way for a series of serious repercussions in the region,” he continued.

“It was a white night to defuse other bombs in the region,” he said, adding that currently “communication continues to strengthen the trust gained and the current positive climate.”

Another Gulf official told Agence France-Presse that “the message sent to Iran was that an attack on American facilities in the Gulf would have consequences for relations with countries in the region.”