British paper The Daily Mail writes today US President Donald Trump has called off a military strike on Iran after being warned that military intervention could lead to another long, drawn-out war in the Middle East, sources say.
Under the headline "Trump 'unlocked and re-loaded' to launch deadly attacks on Iran, then backed down at the last minute due to new information, critics say he 'betrayed'", the newspaper recalls that the US president had previously warned Iran this week that he was "ready" for action and that an attack was inevitable, and urged Iranian citizens to continue the demonstrations because "help is coming".
The brief closure of Iranian airspace on Wednesday led many to expect the US to attack then, with White House spokeswoman Carolyn Leavitt claiming that "all options remain on the table".
Insiders reportedly said that Trump's advisers convinced him not to attack Iran despite military officials going to bed on Tuesday convinced that there would be an attack the next day.
Although Trump told reporters on Friday that he had "convinced himself" not to carry out the attack because the executions of protesters in Iran had been canceled, the Wall Street Journal reported that the president had sought the opinion of a wide range of advisers.
While Trump was still counting on an attack on Tehran on Tuesday, officials reportedly told him they were not sure that an attack alone would successfully topple the Iranian regime.
US officials were also unsure whether a strategy of attacking Iranian military sites would help the rebels and were concerned that they lacked the necessary arsenal to mount a sustained attack, the sources said.
The apparent reversal left protesters in Iran without the support Trump had promised, Susan Maloney, an Iran expert and vice president for foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, told the Wall Street Journal, and Trump "put American credibility on the line."
"There will be, and there already has been, a sense among Iranians that they have been betrayed, and there will be long after the end of Trump's presidency," she said.
The prospect of another long, uncertain battle in a volatile part of the Middle East has taken Donald Trump from being "ready and willing" to attack Iran to putting it on the back burner.
As Trump traded insults with Iran, the White House was also advised by officials from Israel and from Arab countries in the Middle East.
These advisers reportedly warned the US that events in Tehran were too volatile to predict the outcome of the attack and that the regime had already suppressed much of the protest.
They also feared that there was no obvious replacement for the current government if the US toppled the regime of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, despite Iranian Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who was exiled in Washington, saying he would be able to take power.
Part of the information was the possibility that US regional allies - Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia - would face negative reactions to US military bases in those countries.
A group of Iranian leaders, including National Security Advisor Ali Larijani, reportedly participated in trying to dissuade their counterparts in Iraq and Turkey from Trump's plan.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also advised against the attack, telling Trump he thought it might be too late to help the uprising in Tehran.
On Friday, Trump reiterated that the lack of announced executions had prevented him from launching an attack, but he reserved the right to do so in the future.
"Nobody convinced me. I convinced myself. They scheduled over 800 hangings yesterday. They didn't hang anyone. They canceled hangings. That had a big impact," he said.
The US sent troops to Iran on Thursday, which leaves Trump with options if he decides to attack.
Trump, however, took a conciliatory stance, thanking Iranian leaders for not executing hundreds of detained protesters, a further sign that he may be holding off on a military strike.
The president did not say who he spoke with in Iran to confirm his position on the planned executions.
As Iran returned to an uncertain peace after a wave of protests that sparked a bloody crackdown by the government on its citizens, a senior cleric on Friday called for the death penalty for detained protesters and directly threatened Trump.
Executions, as well as the killing of peaceful protesters, are two of the "red lines" that Trump has set for possible action against Iran, according to the British newspaper.
The harsh repression, which has left several thousand people dead, appears to have succeeded in quelling demonstrations that began on December 28 over Iran's faltering economy and finances and turned into protests that directly question theocratic rule.
There has been no sign of protests in Tehran for days, where shopping and street life have seemingly returned to normal, and the internet outage has been going on for a week, leaving little information available. Authorities have not reported any unrest in other parts of the country.
The American agency "Human Rights Activists" on Friday estimated the number of victims at 3.090.
This number, which exceeds the number of any previous protests or unrest in Iran in recent decades and is reminiscent of the chaos during the 1979 "Islamic Revolution," continues to grow.
The agency has been accurate throughout the years of demonstrations, relying on a network of activists inside Iran to confirm all reported deaths.
The unrest, sparked by dire economic conditions, represents the biggest internal challenge for Iran's rulers in at least three years and comes at a time of mounting international pressure following Israeli and US attacks on Iran last summer.
Crown Prince Pahlavi called on the US to fulfill its promise to intervene. Pahlavi, whose father was overthrown in the 1979 "Iranian Islamic Revolution," said he still believed in Trump's promise of help.
"I believe the president is a man of his word," Pahlavi told reporters in Washington. He added that "regardless of whether action is taken or not, we as Iranians have no choice but to continue the fight."
"I will return to Iran!" he vowed. Hours later, he called on protesters to take to the streets again from Saturday to Monday.
Despite the support of hardline monarchists in the diaspora, Pahlavi has struggled to gain wider appeal in Iran. But that hasn't stopped him from presenting himself as Iran's interim leader if the government falls.
Trump, however, expressed uncertainty this Sunday about Pahlavi's ability to rally support within Iran.
Pahlavi met with White House envoy Steve Witkoff last weekend, Axios reported, citing an unnamed senior US official.
On the other hand, the Iranian authorities have adopted a dual approach: on the one hand, suppressing protests, while on the other hand, calling protests due to economic problems legitimate, and so far there are no signs of a breakdown in the security elite that could bring down the clerical system in power since 1979, the Daily Mail concludes.
Bonus video:
