Donald Trump has made the right move with Iran – let’s hope it continues

Mr Trump promised the American people that he would not lead them into another Middle Eastern conflict and he has thus far kept his word

Difficult as it may be to believe, but President Donald Trump has not only listened to his generals, he has exercised restraint and may even be seeking a peaceful path out of America’s escalating conflict with Iran.

Even more remarkably, the president has made public his decision to call off planned US airstrikes against Iranian radar and other military facilities. It would have been, he concedes, a “not proportionate” response. No one was killed when the US air force drone was shot down by the Iranians, possibly in their airspace, possibly in international airspace. According to Mr Trump, some 150 Iranians would have died in his retaliatory attack.

Mr Trump was right to call it off. He promised the American people that he would not lead them into another Middle Eastern conflict and he has thus far kept his word. Limited airstrikes on Syria last year, designed to curb President Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons, have been the limit of US direct action in the region. Of course the US has been arming and supplying Saudi and UAE forces in their cruel war in Yemen, itself a proxy battle with Iran. Mr Trump’s recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights and Jerusalem as the state’s capital have also been deeply destabilising. But in avoiding another unending trauma such as America has suffered in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mr Trump has been as good as his word.