It’s Wednesday, January 21, and what’s happening with the U.S. strike on Iran? It’s been almost two weeks since Trump’s initial threat to the ayatollahs not to harm the protesters—thousands are dead, and still, no consequences.
The delay seems to stem from several factors. The Gulf states weren’t on board—they had no interest in undermining regional stability with a successful or even unsuccessful strike aimed at regime change. Meanwhile, it appears Israel asked the U.S. to go back to the drawing board—the planned strike wouldn’t have made enough of a difference to justify the accelerated timeline.
By far the most hostile “ally” to a strike has been Qatar. There is speculation that they managed to delay—if not cancel—the strike.
That’s being generous to the Qataris—everyone in the region now has an incentive to claim they had no role in the strike planning, just in case Iran decides to retaliate. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned last week that Tehran would be “firing back with everything we have if we come under renewed attack.”