President Donald Trump has said the US military was “cocked and loaded to retaliate” against Iran, but he changed his mind 10 minutes before planned strikes.
IRIBNEWS/Image caption: Iranian TV published pictures of what it says was the wreckage of the US drone
Attacks on three sites were planned in response to the shooting down of a US unmanned drone this week.
Mr. Trump said he had called off strikes after being told 150 people would die.
He tweeted: “10 minutes before the strike I stopped it, not proportionate to shooting down an unmanned drone.”
The late reversal was first reported by the New York Times on Thursday night. The newspaper said the operation had been “in its early stages” when Mr Trump stood the US military down.
Tensions have been escalating between the two countries, with the US recently blaming Iran for attacks on oil tankers operating in the region.
Iran has announced it will soon exceed international agreed limits on its nuclear program.
Last year, the US unilaterally pulled out of a 2015 nuclear deal aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear activities.
“Iran can NEVER have nuclear weapons,” Mr. Trump said in his tweets on the aborted strikes – also revealing that increased economic sanctions against Iran were “added last night”.
The US has now asked the United Nations Security Council to meet on Monday to discuss Iran, Reuters news agency reports.
