The United States struck Iran for 13 straight days after the war resumed, but has halted the strikes for the time being, saying talks are under way. Various media outlets have reported that the reason is that President Donald Trump did not authorise the next round of strikes on Iran.
Trump said on Friday that his door is open to finding a way to ease tensions through diplomacy. At the same time he warned his adversaries that the United States can resume the strikes at any time it chooses.
The United States has taken the decision to pause the strikes at a time when concern over the US military’s munitions stocks is steadily rising.
According to a BBC report, the US ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, dismissed that concern, saying Trump wants to allow more time for diplomatic talks. That, he said, is why he has temporarily halted the strikes on Iran.
Citing US officials familiar with the matter, a Wall Street Journal report said the major military operation planned for Friday had been put on hold because officials had discussed the effect of dwindling stocks of Patriot air defence interceptors and other munitions. They also said the situation remains tense and that strikes on Iran could be ordered at any time.
Those officials also said the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, had told the White House that stocks of air defence interceptor missiles had fallen.
The report also said, citing officials, that the head of US Central Command, Admiral Brad Cooper, believes a munitions shortage will not cause a major problem, because a large-scale attack on Iran would damage its capacity to mount air attacks.
General Dan Caine and a Central Command spokesperson did not comment.
Dismissing concerns over US munitions stocks, President Trump told the Wall Street Journal: “We have far more ammunition than any other country in the world, far more than we need.”
Speaking to journalists on Friday after the United States paused the strikes on Iran, Trump also said: “There is a military route, and we can carry on the way we are going. We can even increase the scale of the strikes, and that would destroy everything they [Iran] have. Or there is a wiser strategy — reaching an agreement. And they [Iran] want to make a deal.”
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report