US President Donald Trump is said to have blocked an Israeli proposal to attack Iranian nuclear facilities, instead choosing to seek diplomatic talks with Tehran on its nuclear program, The New York Times reported on Wednesday, quoting US officials and other sources.
Israel had laid out plans in May to launch the attack and postpone Iran’s nuclear weapons buildup by a year, but it needed US assistance in order to turn back anticipated Iranian retaliation and be successful operationally.
After months of internal debate, Trump made the decision to prefer negotiations over war. The US and Iran have just concluded their first round of talks during the Trump administration in Oman, which both sides termed as “positive” and “constructive.” A second round is scheduled for Saturday, possibly in Rome.
As the US pursues diplomatic avenues, it keeps turning up the economic screws on Iran. On Wednesday, the US Treasury imposed new sanctions on Iran’s oil exports, including against a small Chinese “teapot” refinery that has been accused of importing more than $1 billion of Iranian crude. It is the second such refinery to be sanctioned by the Trump administration.
The Treasury also punished entities and ships blamed for doing business within Iran’s so-called “shadow fleet” that aids evasion of sanctions to ship oil to China the Islamic republic’s largest oil customer. Even though exposed to the American financial system minimally, such smaller refineries now encounter more scrutiny.
China’s Washington embassy denounced the sanctions as “unwarranted suppression” and vowed to safeguard its economic interests. China and Iran allegedly use yuan transactions and middlemen to circumvent US regulatory control.
US officials reiterated their resolve to fully enforce sanctions, threatening parties to Iranian oil trade that they are at “serious risk” under Washington’s revived “maximum pressure” campaign.
