Warum die USA den Iran noch nicht angegriffen haben

Nancy A. Youssef and Vivian Salama: “Late last month, President Trump took to social media to issue a not-at-all-veiled threat to the theocratic rulers of Iran: Come to the negotiating table and agree to ‘NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS,’ or risk the same type of swift and violent response that plucked Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife from Caracas in the middle of the night. ‘Time is running out, it is truly of the essence!’

“Two weeks later, it suddenly isn’t. There is now ‘no rush’ to make a deal, Trump said on Friday while speaking to reporters. Usually, threats of war come after talks fail, not before they have even started. But this time, the United States and Iran appear to have reset the clock just as the administration was at its most bellicose. So what happened?

“The Trump administration had been considering its military options, which ranged from targeting leaders to hitting Iran’s nuclear program. But officials discovered that the U.S. could not conduct a major offensive as quickly as they had hoped without real risks to American forces, support from allies, and regional stability, two U.S. officials told us. Even though Trump has boasted about a ‘massive Armada’ sprinting toward Iran, the U.S. does not have enough ships and planes in the region to conduct weeks of strikes, the officials said. It also does not have clear targets: The White House has yet to outline to military commanders what it would want to achieve through strikes, the officials said, suggesting that the use of force is not imminent.

“Instead, the U.S. held direct talks with Iran over the weekend for the first time since last year. Admiral Brad Cooper, the top commander for Central Command, which is responsible for operations in the Middle East, was among the American officials present for the negotiations in Oman. The discussions allowed Iran to gauge U.S. interest in reaching a deal, a spokesperson for the country’s foreign ministry said. The Trump administration publicly expressed optimism. But one official involved told us that the United States walked away with questions about whether Iran was ‘serious about negotiations or simply pursuing this course to buy additional time.’”

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