President Donald Trump said he’s called off new military strikes on Iran on Thursday, hours after threatening to hit Iran “VERY HARD TONIGHT” and assume total control of the Islamic Republic’s oil and gas industries.
In a social media post, the president credited progress in discussions with high-level Iranian leadership as cause for the sudden change. Trump also suggested that progress has been made in talks to extend the fragile ceasefire. During a telephone rally for Rep. Barry Moore, his chosen candidate in Tuesday’s Senate runoff in Alabama, Trump talked about Iran, about which he said U.S. representatives had “made a great deal.”
Earlier Thursday, the U.S and Iran traded strikes, pushing the Middle East closer to the resumption of a full-scale war. It was the third time this week that back-and-forth strikes have rattled the Middle East, though strikes have been more limited compared to the early weeks of the war.
A rare lapse in a law that allows the United States to gather intelligence abroad appears likely after the House failed on Thursday to temporarily extend the program, in protest of Trump’s refusal to name a permanent head of the nation’s intelligence agencies. (AP)
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