Iran

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Iran Threat Has Been Put ‘On Hold,’ Acting Defense Chief Says

May 22, 2019

by Nancy Youssef, Andrew Duehren, Ben Kesling | The Wall Street Journal

The Trump administration said Tuesday that the threat of hostilities with Iran has receded in the face of U.S. military deployments and sought to assure lawmakers in classified briefings that a war wasn’t imminent.

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Trump officials to brief Congress on escalating tensions with Iran

May 21, 2019

by Karoun Demirjian | The Washington Post

President Trump’s top national security advisers will meet with the full membership of the House and then the Senate on Tuesday afternoon to brief lawmakers on the administration’s escalating standoff with Iran.

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Amid the Fog, Trump’s Real Agenda in Iran

May 20, 2019

by Jerry Seib | The Wall Street Journal

Whatever other assets and liabilities he brings to the table, President Trump certainly offers this: He is a master at sowing uncertainty, so neither friend nor foe really knows what he’s up to. And so it is right now with Iran, where Mr. Trump and his aides have in the past two weeks alternately raised and lowered fears about armed conflict.

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To Contain Iran, Trump’s Newest Line in the Sand Looks a Lot Like Obama’s President Hassan Rouhani of Iran, watching the National Army Day parade in Tehran last month. Credit Reuters Image

May 18, 2019

by David Sanger | The New York Times

Pressed this week to define President Trump’s goals in escalating military and economic pressure on Iran, one of his top foreign policy aides ticked through a familiar list: End the country’s support for terrorism, stop its missile launches and then, most important, keep Iran more than a year away from the capability to build a nuclear weapon.

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Trump Tells Pentagon Chief He Does Not Want War With Iran

May 17, 2019

by Mark Landler, Maggie Haberman, Eric Schmitt | The New York Times

President Trump has sought to put the brakes on a brewing confrontation with Iran in recent days, telling the acting defense secretary, Patrick Shanahan, that he does not want to go to war with Iran, administration officials said, while his senior diplomats began searching for ways to defuse the tensions.

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Trump's irritation with top aides grows over Iran strategy

May 16, 2019

by Kaitlan Collins, Kevin Liptak, Jeremy Diamond, Jim Acosta, Kylie Atwood | CNN

President Donald Trump has become irritated at an emerging impression his hawkish national security advisers are marching him closer to war with Iran despite his isolationist tendencies, according to people familiar with the matter.

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Iran Accuses U.S. of Framing It for Tanker Sabotage to Provoke Conflict

May 15, 2019

by Nancy Youssef, Sune Engel Rasmussen, Aresu Eqbali | The Wall Street Journal

Iran vigorously denied a U.S. claim that it was behind attacks on four oil tankers in the Persian Gulf that set the Middle East on edge, as the Trump administration confronted mounting skepticism from allies abroad and Democrats at home. Iran accused officials in the Trump administration of trying to pull it into a war with the U.S. and its regional allies.

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U.S. Bolsters Its Gulf Defenses to Counter Iran

May 14, 2019

by Nancy Youssef | The Wall Street Journal

The U.S. military plans to deploy a Patriot antimissile system to the Persian Gulf area and will beef up its naval presence in response to growing threats from Iran, the Pentagon said.

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Iran Will Stop Complying With Some Parts of Nuclear Deal

May 8, 2019

by David Sanger | The New York Times

Iran’s president declared on Wednesday that the country would stop complying with two of its commitments under the Iranian nuclear deal, pushing the growing confrontation between Washington and Tehran into new and potentially dangerous territory.