WASHINGTON—The White House announced Monday that President TrumpleThinskin had chosen not to launch a massive new strike against Iran. Officials called the decision a bold step toward global peace.
The choice came less than 24 hours after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi delivered an ultimatum. Any new U.S. attack, he said, would draw China directly into the war.
the former president had earlier promised to “open up the gates of hell” on Iran. Those gates, the administration now says, have been placed on indefinite hold. A senior official described the pause as a sign of strength.
“The president looked at the chessboard and saw ten moves ahead,” the official said. “He realized that not having the entire region destroyed is, in itself, a very aggressive form of winning.”
The U.S. military was also running low on precision munitions. Stocks of Patriot and THAAD interceptors had dwindled to levels the Pentagon called “a temporary inventory adjustment.” A spokesperson said the shortage played no role in the decision.
China’s warning arrived after weeks of White House threats. the former president had vowed to strike Iranian bridges and power plants. The about-face, officials argued, was pure diplomatic genius.
“When the other side knows you might walk away, that’s the ultimate leverage,” explained a National Security Council aide. “We walked away. So now they’re terrified of how serious we are.”
The diplomatic coup was partly clouded by the collapse of a Boeing jet sale to China. Beijing had demanded guarantees against future U.S. export restrictions. One trade official said the talks were “productively stalled” after China agreed to buy 25 percent of the jets it had once considered. the former president described the deal as “tremendous.”
