Informed officials revealed that Trump vetoed Israel's plan to assassinate Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei. Israel is pushing for direct U.S. involvement in the war against Iran, and Trump softened his stance: while calling for peace, he stated that the U.S. "might intervene" and continues to support Israel.
Washington is one step closer to being involved in yet another half-hearted regime change war in the Middle East, as Israel has been urging the United States to directly participate in its airstrikes against Iran.
Trump vetoed Israel's plan to assassinate Khamenei.
Reuters reported last Sunday, citing two unnamed U.S. officials, that Trump vetoed Israel's plan to kill Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei in recent days.
"Did the Iranians kill Americans? No. Unless they kill Americans, we cannot talk about targeting political leaders," one source said, who is a senior U.S. government official.
These unnamed officials said that since Israel launched a large-scale attack against Iran to stop its nuclear program, senior U.S. officials have been in communication with Israeli officials.
They said the Israelis reported that they had the opportunity to kill the Iranian Supreme Leader, but Trump told them to abandon the plan.
These officials are unwilling to disclose whether Trump personally conveyed this message. However, Trump has been in frequent communication with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.
When asked about the Reuters report, Netanyahu said during an interview with Fox News last Sunday: "There is a lot of false reporting about conversations that never happened, and I don't want to discuss that."
Netanyahu said: "But I can tell you that I think we are doing what we need to do, and we will do what we need to do. I believe the U.S. knows what is beneficial for the United States."
Trump has remained hopeful about the resumption of negotiations on the Tehran nuclear program between the U.S. and Iran. The talks scheduled for last Sunday in Oman were canceled due to the outbreak of the conflict between Israel and Iran.
Last Friday, Trump claimed that the U.S. "knew everything" before Israel attacked Iran, which seems to align with the fact that the U.S. began withdrawing non-essential embassy staff and their families from its diplomatic missions in Iraq, Kuwait, and Bahrain last week.
Israelis are waging what could be an all-out regime change war against Iran, rather than just destroying nuclear facilities, and Tel Aviv is now actively trying to drag Washington into it. Will Trump yield to the demands for U.S. intervention?
Trump hinted that the U.S. "may" intervene in the conflict.
Reports last Saturday widely stated that Israel requested direct military assistance from the U.S. to attack Iranian nuclear bases. Following this, Trump began to slightly change the tone of the White House in new comments made to ABC News, saying that the U.S. "may become involved" in the conflict between Israel and Iran.
He said, "We may intervene," but emphasized that the U.S. military "is not currently involved" in the conflict. He instead called for a peaceful resolution to the conflict and stated that the U.S. would hold an "open" attitude toward Russian President Putin serving as a mediator.
"He is ready. He called me. We had a long conversation about this," Trump said.
Of course, he opposed starting new wars during his campaign and stated that these major conflicts would not occur if he were president.
In comments made early Monday morning Beijing time, Trump stated that the United States will continue to support Israel's defensive actions. He does not intend to reveal whether he has asked Israel to suspend its attacks on Iran.
Trump expressed his hope that an agreement could be reached between Iran and Israel, but sometimes effort must be made to resolve issues.
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