Donald Trump: no attack on the Islamic Republic today; vote Netanyahu to finish the job

Donald Trump, the US president, said on Sunday 25 October, in answer to reporters' questions about a new attack on the Islamic Republic, that no attack was planned for today. Early on Monday 26 October, Tehran time, in a message on Truth Social, he urged Israelis to vote for Benjamin Netanyahu in Tuesday's election so that, in his words, the job they had started against the Islamic Republic would be finished.

In the same message Trump claimed that the Islamic Republic no longer has a navy or an air force, that the US naval blockade has stopped its oil sales and that inflation in Iran has reached 301 percent. No independent body has confirmed the inflation figure he gave. The message came a few hours after a report said Netanyahu had asked Trump to publicly back him once again.

A deal or the end of the Islamic Republic

Trump had earlier said in an interview with Fox News that he is choosing between two paths: a deal with Tehran or putting an end to the Islamic Republic; the same choice he had set out after voting early in Florida. In the same interview he rejected the claim that the Islamic Republic is rebuilding the bombed nuclear facilities, saying US intelligence sees little activity at the sites that were previously struck. Trump said the United States has access to all the facilities it bombed and knows what is going on at Kolang Mountain near Natanz.

US officials had earlier said that the option of a new attack, from strikes on nuclear facilities to the seizure of islands, is on the table, and reports also suggest that any attack may be postponed until after the US midterm elections on 3 November.

Netanyahu and the Israeli election

Trump's endorsement came two days before Israel's parliamentary election, in which the Islamic Republic has become the central issue of the race. Netanyahu warned on Sunday that the Islamic Republic and its proxy forces might launch an attack before the vote, and wrote in a post on X that victory over the Islamic Republic's axis is not far away. At the same time, Israeli media have reported an unusual dispute between Netanyahu and Eyal Zamir, the chief of the general staff, over a military action that could have restarted the war.

Trump ruled out an attack today, but by openly backing Netanyahu he showed that ending the Islamic Republic is still Washington's goal.