NYT: President Trump Blocked Planned Israeli Strike on Iranian Nuclear Sites, Opts for Negotiations 

NYT: President Trump Blocked Planned Israeli Strike on Iranian Nuclear Sites, Opts for Negotiations 

President Donald Trump blocked a planned Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear sites, opting instead for negotiating a possible deal with Iran, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing White House officials and others.

Israel recently drew up a plan to hit Iranian nuclear sites after Tehran, last year, launched two rounds of direct aerial attacks on the Jewish State in April and October. Israel carried out successful retaliatory airstrikes, reportedly knocking out Iran’s Russian-made advanced air defense systems and destroying key military and even nuclear program-linked sites. President Joe Biden was opposed to such Israeli counter-strikes.

The plan of attack proposed by Jerusalem “would have required U.S. assistance,” but some White House officials were opposed to the strike. In keeping with the advice of some of his key staffers, President “Trump has chosen diplomacy over military action,” the NYT claimed. Earlier this month, Mr. Trump informed Israel of his decision that the United States would not support an attack,” the newspaper noted.

President Trump rejected the sweeping claims made in the NYT article. He “didn’t wave off” an Israeli strike on Iran,” president said Thursday. “I’m not in a rush to do it.”

🚨WATCH President Trump's remarks on the NYT article https://t.co/aVjteNyG7q pic.twitter.com/EHxKpKHovY

— Raylan Givens (@JewishWarrior13) April 17, 2025

The revelation comes as Washington is holding talks with Iran. “The U.S. and Iran held talks in Oman last Saturday – the first time during a Trump administration, including his 2017-2021 first term,” Reuters noted Thursday. “A second round is scheduled for Saturday, and a source briefed on the planning said the meeting was likely to be held in Rome.”

The New York Times reports:

Israel had planned to strike Iranian nuclear sites as soon as next month but was waved off by President Trump in recent weeks in favor of negotiating a deal with Tehran to limit its nuclear program, according to administration officials and others briefed on the discussions.

Mr. Trump made his decision after months of internal debate over whether to pursue diplomacy or support Israel in seeking to set back Iran’s ability to build a bomb, at a time when Iran has been weakened militarily and economically.

The debate highlighted fault lines between historically hawkish American cabinet officials and other aides more skeptical that a military assault on Iran could destroy the country’s nuclear ambitions and avoid a larger war. It resulted in a rough consensus, for now, against military action, with Iran signaling a willingness to negotiate.

Israeli officials had recently developed plans to attack Iranian nuclear sites in May. They were prepared to carry them out, and at times were optimistic that the United States would sign off. The goal of the proposals, according to officials briefed on them, was to set back Tehran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon by a year or more. (…)

For now, Mr. Trump has chosen diplomacy over military action. In his first term, he tore up the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration. But in his second term, eager to avoid being sucked into another war in the Middle East, he has opened negotiations with Tehran, giving it a deadline of just a few months to negotiate a deal over its nuclear program.

Earlier this month, Mr. Trump informed Israel of his decision that the United States would not support an attack. He discussed it with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when Mr. Netanyahu visited Washington last week, using an Oval Office meeting to announce that the United States was beginning talks with Iran.

In a statement delivered in Hebrew after the meeting, Mr. Netanyahu said that an agreement with Iran would work only if it allowed the signers to “go in, blow up the facilities, dismantle all the equipment, under American supervision with American execution.”

This article is based on conversations with multiple officials briefed on Israel’s secret military plans and confidential discussions inside the Trump administration. Most of the people interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss military planning. (…)

Initially, at the behest of Mr. Netanyahu, senior Israeli officials updated their American counterparts on a plan that would have combined an Israeli commando raid on underground nuclear sites with a bombing campaign, an effort that the Israelis hoped would involve American aircraft. (…)

Some American officials were at least initially more open to considering the Israeli plans. Gen. Michael E. Kurilla, the head of U.S. Central Command, and Michael Waltz, the national security adviser, both discussed how the United States could potentially support an Israeli attack, if Mr. Trump backed the plan, according to officials briefed on the discussions.

With the United States intensifying its war against the Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen, General Kurilla, with the blessing of the White House, began moving military equipment to the Middle East. (…)

Moving additional fighter aircraft to the region, potentially to a base in Israel, was also considered.

All of the equipment could be used for strikes against the Houthis — whom the United States has been attacking since March 15 in an effort to halt their strikes against shipping vessels in the Red Sea. But U.S. officials said privately that the weaponry was also part of the planning for potentially supporting Israel in a conflict with Iran.

Even if the United States decided not to authorize the aircraft to take part in a strike on Iran, Israel would know that the American fighters were available to defend against attacks by an Iranian ally. (…)

There were many reasons that Israeli officials expected Mr. Trump to take an aggressive line on Iran. (…) But inside the Trump administration, some officials were becoming skeptical of the Israeli plan.

In a meeting this month — one of several discussions about the Israeli plan — Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, presented a new intelligence assessment that said the buildup of American weaponry could potentially spark a wider conflict with Iran that the United States did not want.

A range of officials echoed Ms. Gabbard’s concerns in the various meetings. Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; and Vice President JD Vance all voiced doubts about the attack.

Even Mr. Waltz, frequently one of the most hawkish voices on Iran, was skeptical that Israel’s plan could succeed without substantial American assistance.

The recent meetings came shortly after the Iranians said that they were open to indirect talks — communications through an intermediary. In March, Mr. Trump had sent a letter offering direct talks with Iran, an overture that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, had appeared to reject. But on March 28, a senior Iranian official sent a letter back signaling openness to indirect talks.

President Trump held a “White House situation room about the ongoing nuclear deal negotiations with Iran,” Axios reported Tuesday. “The high-level meeting with all of the Trump administration’s top national security and foreign policy officials present was focused on discussing the U.S. position in the next round of talks planned for Saturday,” the sources said.

Following the meeting, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt assured that “the maximum pressure campaign on Iran continues” — a policy pursued during the first Trump administration. The president, however, “wants to see dialogue and discussion with Iran while making clear Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon,” she added.

President Joe Biden also pursued a similar plan to revive the nuclear deal, offering Tehran generous sanctions waivers, including lifting restrictions on Iran’s ‘civilian’ nuclear program and removing the regime’s Yemen-based proxy Houthis from the terrorism list. Iran pocketed the rewards and gave nothing in return.

In 2018, President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Obama-Kerry nuclear agreement, rightly calling it “the worst deal in history,” which kept Iran’s vast nuclear infrastructure intact and allowed it to cross the nuclear threshold in 10 to 15 years.

Israel, particularly its intelligence agency Mossad, has been largely responsible for disrupting the Mullah regime’s nuke program by hitting rogue sites and eliminating its key technicians and operatives.

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