Government supporters hold Iranian flags and pictures of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, during a ceremony honoring the armed forces and those killed in the war with Israel and the U.S. at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosque in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, May 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
People involved in the discussions also said Israeli officials believe Trump is seeking a negotiated settlement instead of a renewed military campaign.
By Vered Weiss, World Israel News
Iran threatened possible preemptive military action if diplomacy with the United States fails, while senior figures and state media dismissed President Donald Trump’s decision to cancel planned strikes as a sign of weakness and urged Tehran not to enter into a deal with Washington.
An Iranian diplomat told The Wall Street Journal that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is considering launching preemptive attacks should negotiations break down.
The diplomat also confirmed that Iran has responded positively to a proposal presented through mediators, although no decision has been made on whether Tehran will ultimately accept it.
The newspaper also reported that Gulf governments have grown increasingly frustrated with what they view as the absence of a coherent U.S. strategy, saying Washington is prolonging the conflict.
Officials from the Gulf told the newspaper that, alongside Israel, the United Arab Emirates favored decisive military action against Iran rather than efforts to ease tensions.
People involved in the discussions also said Israeli officials believe Trump is seeking a negotiated settlement instead of a renewed military campaign.
The reactions followed Trump’s announcement that he had canceled planned military strikes against Iran as part of a framework intended to eliminate Iran’s nuclear threat and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s official IRNA news agency mocked the decision, saying, “The war-mongering president of the United States has once again retreated from his rhetoric and military threats against Iran and claimed that he agreed to cancel the attack on Iran.”
It added that Trump “has so far failed to realize his ambitions in the military arena.”
Kayhan, a newspaper closely aligned with Iran’s ruling establishment, also ridiculed the announcement, writing that “after about a week of boasting and threatening Iran, the U.S. president has once again backed down from his positions by claiming that an agreement is near.”
The newspaper urged Iranian leaders to reject negotiations, concluding: “Now it is the turn of Iranian officials to avoid any negotiations or agreement and prevent Trump from manipulating the energy markets through psychological operations.”
Before Trump’s announcement, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News that “the only reason they are willing to make a deal on disarmament and opening the Strait of Hormuz is that the United States is now dealing with them from a position of strength rather than the position of weakness that existed in the past.”
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