Trump boils over after Tehran kept him waiting
The trigger for President Trump's strikes on Iran was the downing of a U.S. helicopter, but behind the scenes Trump had been growing more and more frustrated over nearly two weeks of waiting for an Iranian response to his latest offer that still has not arrived.Why it matters: The strikes on Tuesday evening were intended to restore some leverage, but be calibrated such that no one would be killed and the possibility of a deal would not be foreclosed, a senior U.S. official told Axios.At the same time, Qatari mediators were holding talks in Tehran in hopes of getting the negotiations back on track and closing the remaining gaps.As the Qataris and Iranians met on Wednesday, Trump made new threats. "We're going to hit them again hard today, in case you miss it, because you don't turn on your television set, and we'll see what happens with the deal."Trump said Iran had been "playing us for suckers" and "tapping us along" in talks. Iran's president countered that Trump's threats showed not strength, but "desperation."State of play: Trump's envoys and the regional mediators are still working to patch together a deal, but the president's latest comments may signal his patience has run out.Trump strikes after helicopter crashThe U.S. still had not determined whether Iran intentionally brought down the helicopter when Trump decided to order a kinetic response.Two senior White House officials told Axios that even if the crash between the U.S. Apache and an Iranian drone was accidental, the U.S. had to respond to show it didn't accept Iran's actions in the Strait of Hormuz."If we didn't respond, it would have made us look weak and also negatively influenced our position in the negotiations with Iran," one of the officials said.But both officials made it clear the U.S. saw its strikes as "proportionate and surgical." They targeted radar and drone control systems while avoiding Iranian casualties.Several hours before the U.S. strikes, the White House tried once more to get clear answers from the Iranians about Trump's latest proposal, without success.A U.S. official said the White House made it clear to the Iranians that "time was running out."The Iranians said they didn't have an answer yet and warned they would respond to any U.S. attack. Iran ultimately did respond, but in a limited way.Around 5pm ET on Tuesday, when the U.S. fighter jets were on their way, the White House sent messages to the Iranians that they would only target military facilities."We told the Iranians that if the pilots were killed we would have been in a whole different place today," a U.S. official said.Tehran Keeps Trump waitingTrump may well have concluded an initial agreement with Iran late last month if he accepted the terms his envoys had negotiated. Instead, he decided after a May 29 Situation Room meeting to send the Iranians a request for two amendments to the draft memorandum of understanding to end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz.Trump's requests were for Iran to agree to down-blend its enriched uranium within 60 days and commit not to toll any ships that pass through the strait.In return, Trump was willing to agree that the down-blending could happen on Iranian soil, under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) — a significant concession, considering he'd previously insisted it be taken abroad.Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told the mediators and the U.S. he would need four or five days to get an answer, according to a regional source involved in the mediation and a U.S. official.That turned into a nearly two-week diplomatic waiting game, during which Trump grew increasingly frustrated over negative, even mocking media coverage about his unfulfilled promises of a deal, as well as criticism from hawks that he was going soft on Iran.Making matters worse, the Iranians were saying in public and in private that they expected to get some frozen assets released upfront, despite Trump's insistence that would only come after some commitments were fulfilled.The U.S. official said Trump was frustrated by those comments and his position had not changed, but noted that the Iranians could secure billions in frozen funds by beginning to fulfill Trump's nuclear demands.Israel-Iran flare-up gets in the wayU.S. negotiators and regional mediators warned the Iranians several times over the past 12 days that they needed to come back with an answer before "spoilers" cropped up to undermine the negotiations, or a tactical incident led to a flare-up, the sources said. Last Saturday, Araghchi told regional mediators he'd sent the Iranian response to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei for approval and hoped to get it to the White House by Sunday.A day later, Israel struck Beirut, Iran launched a missile attack on Israel, and the Israelis retaliated with strikes on Tehran. "We told the Iranians they made a big mistake by launching the attack on Israel because they gave a golden opportunity for Bibi to spoil the negotiations
The trigger for President Trump's strikes on Iran was the downing of a U.S. helicopter, but behind the scenes Trump had been growing more and more frustrated over nearly two weeks of waiting for an Iranian response to his latest offer that still has not arrived.Why it matters: The strikes on Tuesday evening were intended…
The trigger for President Trump's strikes on Iran was the downing of a U.S. helicopter, but behind the scenes Trump had been growing more and more frustrated over nearly two weeks of waiting for an Iranian response to his latest offer that still has not arrived.Why it matters: The strikes on Tuesday evening were intended to restore some leverage, but be calibrated such that no one would be killed and the possibility of a deal would not be foreclosed, a senior U.S. official told Axios.At…