Alex Ward

There is a chance that this is an off-ramp and he takes it.

It's also a chance that it's a delay tactic.

And there's also a chance that he's good now, but if Iran continues its crackdown, he's not good later.

Countries in the region are concerned about this moving forward because they don't want to see a lot of volatility in their region.

Trump seems to be signaling that as long as the crackdown on protesters doesn't go forward, he's good.

But we can't forget that last June he announced to the world after the Wall Street Journal reported he had made the decision to attack that he was actually open to two weeks of diplomacy with Iran over its nuclear program and instead went ahead and attacked Iran anyway.

I'm talking to certain officials who are telling me it's possible.

They don't know for sure, but it's possible that Trump is stalling for time because there are certain amounts of military assets that he would like to see in the region that we currently don't have that could, if he were to order it, lead to a much broader scale attack on Iran and help the U.S.

protect not only troops in the region, but also allies like Israel.