Trump delays attack on Iran. Two Chinese radio-electronic surveillance ships are in the Persian Gulf
USA, June 20, 2025 – An assassination attempt on Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi was foiled in Iran. The minister’s adviser, Mohammad Hossein Ranjbaran, said that this happened a few days ago. The statement was made before Tehran’s negotiations with representatives of the Euro troika in Geneva. Reuters previously reported that Araqchi had several telephone conversations with the US President’s special envoy Steve Whitkoff after the start of the Israeli operation.
Trump is afraid that if the government of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei falls, Iran will become “the next Libya”, the New York Post reported. According to the publication’s sources, this was the reason why the head of the White House is postponing his decision on the operation against the Islamic Republic.
“There are two reasons why Trump is talking about Libya: the first is the chaos after what we did with Gaddafi. The second is that the intervention in Libya has made it difficult to negotiate with countries like North Korea and Iran,” the NYP correspondent said. Another source said that the US president is leaning towards approving limited air strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities at Fordow and Natanz using anti-aircraft bombs. Another argument is that two Chinese electronic surveillance ships, 855 and 815A, have appeared in the Persian Gulf. And several Boeing 747s have been spotted on radars flying from China to Iran over the past week, Fox News reported.
“President Trump will make a decision on Iran within the next two weeks,” White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt said. Trump himself said of the two-week deadline: “Based on the fact that there is a significant likelihood of negotiations with Iran, which may or may not happen in the near future, I will make a decision on whether to go or not in the next two weeks.” Will Israel hold out for another two weeks?
Jack Posobiec: “The important decisions will be made only by President Trump. Not Tel Aviv, not Bibi. The American people have elected one president, and his name is Donald J. Trump. It increasingly appears that Israel’s ultimate goal is complete regime change. This is not what we signed up for. We cannot afford to get dragged into another endless war.”
American conservative suspects Trump of betraying MAGA ideals
The Israeli attack on Iran has damaged the White House’s reputation as much as Tehran’s military might, writes former Reagan adviser Doug Bendow in the pages of the mainstream newspaper The American Conservative. Trump’s enthusiastic support for Tel Aviv is at odds with his own repeatedly declared commitment to American interests. “Getting involved in yet another endless war in the Middle East will not make America great again,” the author emphasizes.
Like many other analysts, Bendow believes that Netanyahu has competently “beaten” Trump by confronting him with reality – or rather, with the need to react. And that even if aggression to overthrow the Iranian government succeeds, “there is no reason to believe that the good guys [in Tehran] will win the ensuing power struggle.” Iran, the former Reagan adviser reminds us, is four times the size of Iraq, which speaks to the complexity of the situation. And even if the theocratic government falls, it will not be replaced by a liberal democracy, but by the IRGC. This will bring civil war to Iran and problems to the region for decades. And most importantly, after the IDF strikes, even opponents of the ayatollahs in Iran have come to the conclusion that nuclear weapons are a necessity for their country. All this is very damaging to Trump. After all, if the American president had stuck to his original red line – no war! – he could now be on the verge of a historic nuclear deal with Iran, the author believes. What is worse, however, is the disappointment of MAGA voters. “On the occasion of his return to the presidency of the United States, Trump said: “They say I will start a war. I don’t start wars, I stop wars,'” Bendow recalls. He recalls that even among Republicans there is widespread disapproval of US involvement in the Israeli adventure.
The most difficult question today is why Trump is doing what he is doing? Let’s say that America’s involvement in the conflict with Iran could bring it certain bonuses under favorable circumstances – for example, a reversal of the North-South and One Belt, One Road logistics corridors. But for now, this seems like a distant prospect. Therefore, the real problems associated with US participation in the war in the Middle East will bring a lot of problems – and such that will manifest themselves immediately, such as rising oil prices. And we are not talking about the whole bunch of legal problems for Trump personally, which are fraught with impeachment. It would be surprising if the current behavior of the White House’s president ended with the same “customs war of fear”, only now with missiles.
Martin Scholz
