Tens10ns between the US and Iran were ebbing on. Friday atter US President Donald Trump said he hoped the two countries would not go to war at the end of a fraught week that highlighted the risk of a clash in the Middle East. EU diplomats who have spent recent days trying to calm tensions expressed relief at Mr Trump’s response to a question on whether the US was going to war with Iran. “I hope not,” the US president replied on Thursday.
But a day later amid speculation about divisions inside his administration Mr Trump muddied his position by tweeting that it “may very well be a good thing!” that Iran does not know what to think. The week of drama began with attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure claimed by Iran-aligned Houthi rebels and included warnings from American officials of unspecified “escalatory action” by Iran and US military deployments to the reg10n. It concluded with growing calls for Washington and Tehran to set up an emergency contact link to prevent accidental conflagrations.
Iranian leaders have consistently said they do not want war. But a senior member of Iran’s parliament warned that some “third players”, which he did not name, were seeking the “destruction of a big part of the world “. Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, head of the Iranian parliament’s foreign policy committee, said on Twitter that a “desk hasto beset up in Iraq or Qatar” so that Iranian and American officials could communicate and “manage tensions”.
Mr Trump’s declared aversion to war appeared to confirm suspicions that he was less supportive of confronting Iran than hawkish advisers led by John Bolton, US national security adviser, and Mike Pompeo, his secretary of state. Jon Alterman, Middle East director for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said: “It’s not clear whether [Mr Trump] is softening his line or coming to understand the implications of what people thought his line was. It may actually be a question of him developing a line. I’m not confident he had thought Iran through very much.”