After months of swinging between threats and talk of winding down, Donald Trump may be leaning towards keeping the guns quiet. According to a Reuters report published on Saturday, the president has told his national security team in recent days that he could refrain from fresh strikes on Iran as long as neither Tehran nor the Houthi rebels it backs in Yemen stir up new trouble. Three people with knowledge of the discussions described the conversations.
Nothing has been settled. Officials quoted in the report say Trump still seems undecided on how to end a conflict that Washington and Israel started in February and that has become a political burden at home. Petrol has become pricier, and in polling by Reuters and Ipsos shortly before the midterm vote, more than half of respondents, 55 percent, judged that the fighting had cost too much. Republicans went on to lose Congress, a defeat Vice President JD Vance blamed on the war.
Pressure for restraint is also coming from the region. Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, is said to have advised against renewed attacks in recent phone conversations, as has Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan; the crown prince reportedly argued that sanctions were already biting. Trump has hinted publicly at the same mood, saying he “could end it immediately” but was taking a slower path at the request of partners.
The military option has not been shelved. A third aircraft carrier is heading for the Middle East, and planners stand ready to escalate. Yet US intelligence reportedly judges that more bombing would barely move Iran’s position at the negotiating table, and some weapons stocks have run worryingly low. Israel, meanwhile, keeps lobbying for another campaign.
The White House declined to spell out a course, stressing only that the president alone decides and pointing to the naval blockade and US control of the Strait of Hormuz as leverage. Inside Iran, the economic strain is visible: official figures show prices up nearly 89 percent over a year.
