Netanyahu Asked Trump to ‘Postpone’ US Attack on Iran Over Protestor Slaughter, NY Times Reports

(Mark Schiefelbein/AP photo)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called President Donald Trump on Wednesday and urged him to “postpone” any plan to attack Iran following the mass slaughter of pro-democracy protestors in the country, reported The New York Times on Thursday.

Trump surprised many during an Oval Office Q&A on Thursday, saying, “We’ve been told that the killing in Iran is stopping, and it’s stopped, it’s stopping. And there’s no plan for executions, or an execution, or executions.” He later added that his administration would take a “wait and see” posture before following through on Trump’s promise to intervene if Iran killed protesters, which it has done en masse in recent days.

The Times added some background to Trump’s apparent flip-flop, reporting that “Netanyahu spoke to Mr. Trump on Wednesday, the same day the American president said he had received information from ‘very important sources on the other side’ that Iran had stopped killing protesters and was not going forward with executions. That appeared to signal that Mr. Trump was backing away from a potential U.S. attack on Iran, which he has been weighing for days.”

The Times noted that Trump could also be following the same playbook he used when he struck Iran in June, which included contradicting signals as to whether or not he would order the strike.

Other U.S. allies in the Middle East — Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Egypt — also asked Trump not to attack Iran, warning of a “wider regional conflict,” reported the Times.