Iran is reportedly postponing its promised third ballistic missile attack on Israel in the hope of reaching a deal with President-elect Donald Trump, who has taken a hard line on Iran but has also expressed hope of a new agreement.
Iran attacked Israel in April with hundreds of missiles, drones, and projectiles, almost all of which were intercepted. It struck again in October with hundreds of ballistic missiles, most of which were again intercepted. The Biden-Harris administration pressured Israel not to respond in a significant way in April, but in October, Israel knocked out key parts of Iran’s missile production capacity, as well as its air defenses. Iran vowed to respond but has not yet done so.
It is not clear whether Iran has refrained for strategic reasons, or because Israel destroyed its ability to attack again.
Sky News Arabic reported Tuesday, according to Ynet, that Iran — which clearly hoped Vice President Kamala Harris would win the U.S. election — was now reconsidering, thanks to Trump’s resounding victory and imminent return:
Sources in Iran told Sky News in Arabic that Tehran will pospone True Promise 3, he name given to the future third attack against Israel. According to the sources, “the Iranian response against Israel is postponed until negotiations with President Trump begin.”
Israeli government spokesman David Mencer, asked about the report, told journalists in a briefing: “An Iran which is deterred from attacking Israel is a good thing.
He added that Israel retained the liberty, and the ability, to attack Iran, saying that a nuclear Iran is “not a reality that we are prepared to live with.”
Noting that “Israel has already struck its soft underbelly,” Mencer added: “Their vulnerability has been exposed. There are lots of haughty words from the Iranian regime leaders, but they cannot cover up the fact … that Israel has greater freedom of action than ever before.
“The prime minister has made clear that we can go anywhere we need to go in Iran. We do not wish this conflict with Iran, but we are defending ourselves.”
Trump has said that be believed he could achieve a better deal with Iran than the regime reached with President Barack Obama in the 2015 nuclear deal, which would have allowed Iran to emerge as a nuclear power after a decade.
At the same time, Trump has also said that Israel should destroy Iran’s nuclear program, if threatened by the regime.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.