By In a White House interview released on Thursday, President Donald Trump said Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain had asked Washington not to resume large-scale attacks on Iran — and said he would have struck again if they had not asked.
By Shoaib Khan
Chief Journalist | The BNN Media – The Best News Network
News Beyond the Borders
Washington, United States — President Donald Trump has said that five Gulf states asked him to refrain from launching further major attacks on Iran, and that he is holding off “at the request of the nations that I’m looking to protect” — while making clear that he does not entirely agree with the pause and could end it at any time.
What Trump Said in the Interview
The remarks came in an interview with the broadcaster Stephen A. Smith at the White House, released on Thursday, 12 November 2026. According to multiple reports of the interview, Mr Trump said:
“Saudi Arabia has asked me to please just let it be the way it is now for a while,” he said. “Qatar, if you look at that. Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain. All of them would much prefer the waiting period.”
He added: “So they’ve asked me to do that and I’m doing that. I’m not sure I agree with it, but we’ve taken them largely out.”
Asked whether he would have ordered heavier strikes if the Gulf countries had not made the request, he answered: “Yes, I would.”
Mr Trump also boasted of the damage the United States could inflict if it chose to resume large-scale operations. “In one day their bridges are gone,” he said of Iran, listing energy and manufacturing beside them. “It would only take me three days.” He said he could “end the war immediately” but was continuing the current pressure only because regional allies asked him to.
According to Middle East Eye’s account of the interview, Mr Trump added that Saudi Arabia had asked him to wait “because they’re disintegrating” — a remark about the kingdom’s vulnerability to retaliation, as it comes under missile and drone strikes from Yemen’s Houthis.
The interview is Mr Trump’s own account of why the strikes have not resumed. None of the five governments he named has confirmed his version of the request — or denied it. The only version of the request on the public record is his.
A Pause, Not a Peace
The interview came hours after Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social: “We don’t need a deal with Iran.” That post, and his instruction to Vice President JD Vance to leave the Iran file, were reported alongside the interview.
Mr Trump’s remarks on Thursday were not the first time he has described Gulf pressure for restraint. On Monday, 9 November, after White House talks with Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani — a key intermediary with Tehran — he said the United States would hold off on fresh strikes for now and keep the status quo, naming the same five countries. And on 18 May, he wrote on Truth Social that the rulers of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates had asked him to call off an attack “scheduled for tomorrow”. Kuwait and Bahrain were not on that list in May. They are on this one.
But the pause described on Thursday is not a peace agreement, and Mr Trump has not committed never to resume strikes. The United States is maintaining its naval blockade of Iranian ports, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio has argued that economic pressure on Tehran is proving sufficiently effective to make a resumption of large-scale military operations unnecessary.
Earlier on Thursday, the radio host Hugh Hewitt asked Mr Trump what would happen if Iran killed a senior American official. “They will not exist very long any longer,” he replied.
The Bahrain Claim Hours Later
Hours after the interview was released, the situation Mr Trump described was tested. In the early hours of Friday, 13 November, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had destroyed an American early-warning radar installation in Bahrain, one of the five states Mr Trump had named.
According to Iranian news agencies, the Guards said their aerospace force acted “in response to the enemy’s aerial aggression against a telecommunications tower in Sirik”, a port in Hormozgan province on the Strait of Hormuz. The statement did not say who attacked Sirik, or what weapon the Guards used.
Neither the United States military nor Bahrain’s government had commented on the claim by Friday morning, and nobody outside Iran has confirmed the strike. It is the first Iranian claim of a hit on an American military site in Bahrain since early September.
Bahrain hosts the headquarters of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet and of US Naval Forces Central Command, at Naval Support Activity Bahrain in the Juffair district of Manama. Iranian missiles and drones struck the Fifth Fleet headquarters on 28 February, the first day of the war; Bahrain’s authorities said they had intercepted 188 missiles and 468 drones by 6 April.
Why the Gulf States Want a Waiting Period
The Gulf governments’ reasons for urging restraint are not hard to see. They are divided on many issues but united in their opposition to a major escalation in the war, analysts say — and they do not want a failed state in Iran, because a failed state there could lead to a Libya-like situation with civil war.
Saudi Arabia is also fighting on its southern flank. Its coalition said it shot down Houthi drones over Riyadh and the Eastern Province on Thursday, and the UN Security Council that night condemned the Houthi attacks on the kingdom. Qatar carries messages between Washington and Tehran. Its prime minister met Mr Trump on 9 November, after which Mr Trump said: “We’re just keeping it the status quo.”
The Politics Behind the Pause
Domestic politics also hang over the decision. Republicans lost ground in the midterm elections on 3 November, and Mr Vance wrote the next day that “the reason we lost is the war”. Mr Trump told Smith: “Maybe the war was not unpopular as a war, but unpopular because of the fact that the gasoline prices were higher.”
The war itself began on 28 February 2026, when the United States and Israel launched their military campaign against Iran. More than eight months on, Mr Trump has played down the likelihood of major warfare restarting soon, while remaining unwilling to accept an existing Iranian truce plan — and while insisting, in his own words, that he could end the war in three days if he chose.
What to Watch
Three things will show whether the “waiting period” holds. The first is a statement from US Central Command or Bahrain’s interior ministry on the radar claim — none had come by Friday morning. The second is whether Riyadh, Doha, Kuwait City, Abu Dhabi or Manama says anything in public about the request Mr Trump described. The third is the attack on Sirik, which no government has claimed.
For now, the record is this: five Gulf governments are said to have asked for restraint, one president says he is granting it against his own judgement, and no government on either side has confirmed the other’s account. The pause holds — until it does not.
By Shoaib Khan
Chief Journalist | The BNN Media – The Best News Network
News Beyond the Borders
