Israel had planned to attack Iranian nuclear facilities in May, but U.S. President Donald Trump refused to support the Israeli strike in favor of negotiations with Tehran to limit its nuclear program, Meduza reported on April 17, citing The New York Times.
Trump's decision, as sources told NYT, followed months of internal debates within his team. General Michael Kurilla, head of U.S. Central Command, and National Security Advisor Mike Walts discussed how the U.S. could potentially support an Israeli strike.
However, at one of the subsequent meetings, CIA Director Talsi Gabbard presented a new intelligence assessment, stating that the buildup of U.S. military forces in the region could potentially provoke a broader conflict with Iran, something the U.S. wanted to avoid. Gabbard's concerns were supported by Defense Secretary Pete Hegset, Vice President JD Vance, and White House Chief of Staff Suzy Wiles.
Israeli officials, who had developed plans to attack Iranian nuclear facilities, were at times optimistic about U.S. support. According to NYT sources, the goal of the strikes was to delay Tehran's ability to develop nuclear weapons for a year or more. However, nearly all of the plans required U.S. assistance, not only to protect Israel from an Iranian response but also to ensure the success of the strike itself.
During a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who visited Washington on April 7, Trump informed him that he would not support the Israeli attack.
At that same time, U.S. President Trump publicly announced upcoming negotiations with Iran. In his statement in Hebrew after the meeting, Netanyahu wrote that an agreement with Iran would only work if all nuclear facilities were destroyed and the equipment "dismantled under American supervision and implementation."
In 2015, an agreement was reached between Iran and several countries (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), which called for scaling down Iran's nuclear program.
In 2018, during his first term, Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from the agreement based on intelligence about Iran's nuclear program developments. Since then, indirect negotiations between Tehran and Washington have been unsuccessful.
