US believes that strikes on Iran have exhausted their effectiveness

According to Axios sources, Cooper's recommendation, along with the advice of other advisers, influenced US President Donald Trump's decision on Friday to suspend American strikes on Iran.

This was an acknowledgement by both the president's military and civilian advisers that there are limits to what can be achieved through military action, namely, an air campaign.

For the first time in two weeks, Trump ordered the military to hold fire and not strike Iranian targets along Iran's southern coast and in the Strait of Hormuz.

The decision was made after a meeting with top advisers and military officials, who presented him with a new strike plan for that day.

Several days before the meeting, Trump had been leaning toward resuming large-scale combat operations, but his mood began to change on Thursday evening.

His decision to suspend bombing of the Strait was finalized on Friday.

Earlier last week, Admiral Cooper presented his recommendations for further action to the Pentagon, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the White House.

He emphasized that two weeks of strikes in the Strait of Hormuz had significantly weakened Iran's ability to attack ships.

Cooper noted that the designated bombing targets have largely been exhausted.

The CENTCOM commander stated that the next step could be resuming large-scale combat operations to destroy the 20% of targets that the US military identified but did not hit during Operation Epic Fury.

In the absence of a decision to resume large-scale combat operations, he emphasized that there was no point in continuing the bombing campaign that had lasted for the previous two weeks.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Kaine also privately warned Defense Secretary Pete Hagseth and Trump that the shortage of air defense interceptors could limit the ability to protect American troops and allies in the region.

Photo: eurasiatoday.ru.