As protests intensified in Iran, the world watched with bated breath, expecting US President Donald Trump to launch an attack on the Islamic regime. But that did not happen. Now, a report has cited the one thing that prompted Trump to call off attack plans and choose negotiations.
Iran’s threat to launch missile barrages at a wide range of targets across the Middle East if US President Donald Trump launches an attack against it forced the US to take a step back. Trump put off plans for a mid-January attack on Iran at the last minute after realising that the US didn’t have enough forces in the region to carry out the decisive strike he wanted, according to a report that appeared in The Wall Street Journal.
Tehran still has about 2,000 medium-range ballistic missiles capable of reaching anywhere in the region, along with significant stockpiles of short-range missiles and anti-ship cruise missiles. During the 12-day war with Israel last June, Iran launched some 500 missiles at civilian and military targets in Israel. Although the attack caused little strategic damage and Israel responded with a 12-day war that included strikes on launchers and storage sites, the Iranian regime emerged from the conflict with most of its arsenal intact. Moreover, Iran appears to have learned during the fighting how to better penetrate Israeli and US bases.
Iran has built thousands of ballistic missiles over the decade by copying Russian and American technology and has used them before to target air bases, energy facilities, desalination plants and cities in the region. However, Tehran has played it safe, even informing its targets in advance, like the recent air strike on a US base in Qatar, to send the message that it wasn’t seeking a wider war.
Tehran is also convinced that its missile programme was the main reason the U.S. hasn’t attacked Iran and had opted for talks instead. “The U.S. has returned to negotiations humbled,” said Brig. Gen. Yadollah Javani, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ political bureau, as he exhibited a new model of medium-range ballistic missiles.
Iran has also warned the US that any strike on Iran would trigger retaliation, causing thousands of American casualties. Mahmoud Nabavian, a member of parliament’s national security committee, said Trump sent a message via an unnamed country before negotiations asking to hit “two points” in Iran. “We told them it was over. If you make the slightest mistake, we will take three to four thousand casualties from you,” Nabavian was quoted as saying.
Iran has also warned that though Tehran wouldn’t target its neighbours, any company or base “bearing the name of the United States” would be targeted.
The Pentagon is now moving additional missile defence systems to the Middle East and the Persian Gulf.
