Washington, June 21 (RHC)-- U.S. President Donald Trump has pulled back planned strikes on Iran after initially tweeting on Thursday that the Islamic Republic had made a “big mistake” by shooting down a surveillance drone worth $130 million.

In a New York Times article, it was reported that Trump has backtracked on his plan to attack Iran’s missile systems after initially approving strikes on a handful of targets such as radar and missile batteries.  The newspaper cited senior administration officials involved in, or briefed on, the deliberations.

The strikes were set to take place just before dawn on Friday to minimize risk to the Iranian military or to civilians, according to new revelations.  Planes were in the air and ships were in position, but no missiles fired, when the order to stand down came, according to one senior administration official.

The abrupt reversal put a halt to what would have been Trump’s third military action against targets in the Middle East, the paper added, saying Trump had struck twice at targets in Syria, in 2017 and 2018.

However, it is not clear whether attacks on Iran might still go forward, The New York Times said, adding that it was not known if the cancellation of strikes had resulted from Trump changing his mind or administration concerns regarding logistics or strategy.