Trump Warned Iran Via Oman That Attack Was Imminent, Called for Talks 

Iranian officials told Reuters on Friday that Tehran had received a message from President Donald Trump through Oman overnight warning that a U.S. attack on Iran was imminent, in retaliation for the downing of an unmanned $130-million surveillance drone.

“In his message, Trump said he was against any war with Iran and wanted to talk to Tehran about various issues … he gave a short period of time to get our response but Iran‘s immediate response was that it is up to Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei to decide about this issue,” one of the officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The second official said: “We made it clear that the leader is against any talks, but the message will be conveyed to him to make a decision … However, we told the Omani official that any attack against Iran will have regional and international consequences.”

Earlier, The New York Times reported that Trump approved military strikes against Iran, but pulled back from launching the attacks.

Trump had initially approved strikes on a handful of targets such as radar and missile batteries, the paper cited senior administration officials involved in, or briefed on, the deliberations, as saying.

The strikes were set to take place just before dawn on Friday to minimize risk to the Iranian military or to civilians, it added.

Planes were in the air and ships were in position but no missiles fired, when the order to stand down came, it cited one senior administration official as saying.