Did Trump Play A Double Game With Iran?

Even as U.S. President Donald Trump spoke of dismantling the Iran nuclear deal and got Steve Witkoff, his Middle East envoy to hold several round of negotiations with senior Iranian negotiators, and floated the idea of a “better one,” behind the scenes, Washington may have been playing a far more dangerous game. New reporting in the US press suggest that while Trump officials engaged in indirect talks with Tehran, they were also fully aware of Israel’s operational readiness to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, a possibility the U.S. neither discouraged nor disclosed.

For Iran, already mistrustful of American intentions since the 1979 revolution, this only reinforced its view of the U.S. as duplicitous — talking diplomacy by day while paving the way for confrontation by night. Iran had been lulled into complacency and despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s frequent threats, Tehran never expected an attack while negotiations with the US were on.

``They never expected Israel to strike before another round of talks that had been scheduled for this coming Sunday in Oman, officials close to Iran’s leadership said on Friday. They dismissed reports that an attack was imminent as Israeli propaganda meant to pressure Iran to make concessions on its nuclear program in those talks,’’ the New York Times correspondent reported from Tehran.

`` Iran’s senior leaders had been planning for more than a week for an Israeli attack should nuclear talks with the United States fail. But they made one enormous miscalculation,’’ the NYT report said. The miscalculation was the timing. It appears that many of the senior commanders who were killed were so sure that nothing would happen till after Sunday’s talks, that they flouted rules and said at their homes instead of the designated ``safe’’ houses.

Iran has accused the US of double standards and its Ambassador to the UN, Amir Saeid Iravani had told the Security Council which had convened a special session on the crisis : "The aggression was intentional, coordinated and fully backed by a permanent member of this council, the United States. The United States’ complicity in this terrorist attack is beyond doubt."

The US while aware of Netanyahu’s plans of attacking Iran’s nuclear facility, was busy negotiating a revised deal with Iran. Keeping up the pretense Trump had told reporters that a deal with Iran was imminent. In May he had even said that he had told Netanyahu, “I told him this would be inappropriate to do right now because we’re very close to a solution,” Trump told reporters in late May. “Now, that could change at any moment, could change with a phone call. But right now, I think they want to make a deal, and if we can make a deal, it will save a lot of lives.”

Iran’s leaders believe Trump’s rhetoric about a deal was meant to mislead Tehran. Rebuilding the trust deficit between the US and Iran would be even more difficult after this.