When Donald Trump said on Thursday he'd give himself two weeks to decide on bombing Iran, critics wrote it off as the US president using a familiar timeframe to put off difficult decisions.

The next evening he left the White House for a fundraising dinner at his New Jersey golf resort, and much of the world seemed to believe that there was still space for diplomacy.

In reality, Trump was already on the verge of making his mind up.

A few hours after his arrival at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster on Friday night, the first B-2 stealth bombers took off from a US airbase.

The next day, while the bombers were still in the air, Trump made the call on attacking three Iranian nuclear facilities, in the first direct US military strike on Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

"The president gave the final order to the Secretary of Defense on Saturday," a senior White House official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"In the week leading up to the strike, the president was continuing to pursue diplomacy, mainly through Special Envoy (Steve) Witkoff's efforts, while the Pentagon was simultaneously........

© Al Monitor