Israel and Arab Nations Ask Trump to Refrain From Attacking Iran

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel asked the president to postpone any planned attack. Israeli and Arab officials fear Iran could retaliate by striking their countries.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has asked President Trump to postpone any plans for an American military attack on Iran, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday, even as the Iranian government continues to grapple with nationwide protests.

Mr. Netanyahu spoke to Mr. Trump on Wednesday, the same day the American president said he had received information from “very important sources on the other side” that Iran had stopped killing protesters and was not going forward with executions. That appeared to signal that Mr. Trump was backing away from a potential U.S. attack on Iran, which he has been weighing for days.

However, Mr. Trump sent a similar ambiguous signal last June even after he had largely made up his mind to order an attack on Iran. And a senior U.S. official said late Wednesday that Mr. Trump had not set aside the military options his commanders had presented in recent days, and that whether he ordered an attack depends on what Iranian security agencies do next in regard to the mass protests.

Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Egypt, all partners of Washington, have also been asking the Trump administration not to attack Iran, said an official from a Gulf Arab nation. Senior officials from those countries have been calling U.S. officials with that message over the last two days, the official said. They have told the Americans that a U.S. attack could lead to a wider regional conflict.

At the same time, those Arab nations have been telling Iranian officials not to attack countries in the region if the United States decides to strike Iran, the official said. The four nations have been coordinating their messaging to both Washington and Tehran, the official said. Two diplomats in the region also said several Arab nations have pressed the Trump administration not to attack Iran.

“We believe in dialogue and we believe in solving any disagreements at the negotiating table,” Adel al-Jubeir, a Saudi minister of state, said at a minerals forum in Riyadh, the kingdom’s capital.

Mr. Netanyahu also spoke to Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday, the same day that top Trump aides met in the White House to review military options, U.S. officials said.

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said on Thursday after this article was first posted that Mr. Trump had talked with Mr. Netanyahu, but she declined to give details. The Israeli prime minister’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

Ms. Leavitt also told reporters that U.S. officials had received reports that Iran had held off on planned executions, reiterating a comment that Mr. Trump made the previous day. “The president and his team have communicated to the Iranian regime that if the killing continues, there will be grave consequences,” she said.

Israeli defense officials have assessed that the rate of the killings of protesters in Iran has dropped, two Israeli officials said. That is largely because the government’s lethal crackdown and cutting of internet service across the country have resulted in smaller protests since Sunday. The anti-government protests have been taking place since late December and could be the largest in Iran in decades.

Iran ordered its air space closed to commercial flights late Wednesday, but has reopened it.

As Mr. Trump signaled a possible hold on imminent military action against Iran, the Pentagon was using the pause to rush additional weaponry and defensive equipment to the region.

The aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and some of its escort warships were steaming toward the Middle East from the South China Sea — about a weeklong journey, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters.

In addition, an array of warplanes, likely to include a combination of fighter jets, attack planes and refueling planes, were expected to start flowing into the region soon, many from Europe, the officials said. Some of these aircraft had been scheduled to replace units in the Middle East, and could have their tours extended depending on the severity of the tensions.

If the United States strikes Iran, leaders there are expected to retaliate. So the Pentagon is also dispatching more air defense equipment, including interceptor missiles, to better protect bases in the region, particularly Al Udeid air base in Qatar, the officials said.

The two U.S. officials said the surge in weaponry aimed both to deter Iranian authorities from inflicting more violence on the protesters and to provide Mr. Trump with more options in planning for any attack on Iran.

U.S. officials had already been preparing for the possibility that Iran could retaliate against an attack by striking American military assets in the region, mainly the Al Udeid base in Qatar or troops stationed in Iraq and Syria. But Israel could also be a target for Iran.

Iran fired many ballistic missiles at Israel during a 12-day war between the two nations in June that the United States also took part in by striking three Iranian nuclear sites. Some of the Iranian missiles got past Israeli air defenses, hitting some military sites and also killing civilians.

To retaliate against the U.S. strikes in June, Iran fired ballistic missiles at Al Udeid, the largest American military base in the Middle East. About 10,000 troops are stationed there. The Iranian barrage caused no deaths or injuries.

In recent days, the Pentagon had begun moving some troops and equipment from the base as Mr. Trump weighed options for a U.S. strike on Iran. A Pentagon official said on Thursday that the Defense Department has lowered the alert level at the air base and that troops have been returning.

The Iranian government has cut off internet service across the country, and it has been difficult to get information about the events unfolding there. Security forces have killed hundreds or thousands of protesters to try to end the broad anti-government demonstrations, according to Iranian officials and human rights groups outside the country. Two Iranian officials told The New York Times on Monday that at least 3,000 people had been killed.

More than 2,500 people have been killed since the protests began, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, or HRANA, an organization based in Washington. The Norway-based Iran Human Rights said that more than 3,400 had been killed and thousands of others injured. One of those killed was a Canadian citizen, Canada’s foreign minister, Anita Anand, said in a post on social media on Thursday.

Mr. Trump has said since Jan. 2 that he could order an attack on Iran if the government harms protesters, even though he has denounced people who demonstrate against his policies in the United States. On Tuesday, he wrote on social media that Iranian protesters should take over government institutions, and that “HELP IS ON ITS WAY.”

Iran’s judiciary said on Thursday that it had not issued a death sentence for Erfan Soltani, a protester whose execution had been widely reported as imminent and drawn international attention. The comments were reported by Iran’s state broadcaster, and were published on social media.

“This is good news,” Mr. Trump said on Thursday on social media, citing an unspecified Fox News report that said an unnamed Iranian protester and others would not be sentenced to death. “Hopefully, it will continue!” he said.

Analysts say that the Iranian government is trying to make a distinction between ordinary protesters and those whom it calls rioters and terrorists, backed by foreign powers. That nuance of messaging, the analysts said, was intended to put pressure on citizens and dissuade them from protesting.

Reporting was contributed by Ronen Bergman from Tel Aviv; Aaron Boxerman from Jerusalem; Vivian Nereim from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Abdi Latif Dahir from Beirut, Lebanon; and Sanam Mahoozi from London.

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