Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu drew up a plan earlier this month to launch a massive airstrike operation against Iran, but put it on hold after U.S. President Donald Trump opposed it, the Financial Times (FT) reported on the 21st local time.

Multiple sources told the newspaper that the Israeli military had prepared a large-scale bombing operation against Iran starting Saturday, the 10th.

The plan involved striking civilian infrastructure such as power plants, as well as nuclear facilities and key regime targets, over the course of several days.

In particular, Israeli officials prepared an updated target list that included civilian infrastructure which had been excluded earlier this year, and sources said the operation was planned with an intensity surpassing the joint U.S.-Israeli strikes of that time.

However, the operation was ultimately not executed after facing opposition from President Trump, who did not want conflict in the Middle East to escalate into an all-out war ahead of next month's U.S. midterm elections.

In response, the White House stated, "The U.S. has no plans to attack Iran before the midterm elections," adding that the current economic and military blockade against Iran is already proving successful.

The Israeli Prime Minister's Office and the Israel Defense Forces declined to comment.

Previously on the 13th, the U.S. internet outlet Axios also reported that Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump discussed reauthorizing a large-scale operation against Iran prior to the elections.

Israel's recent airstrike plan and U.S. opposition are fundamentally driven by critical political timetables facing both nations.

Israel faces a general election on the 27th of this month, while the U.S. holds its midterm elections on the 3rd of next month.

Prime Minister Netanyahu is fighting a tough battle in this election, the first to be held since the Gaza war broke out in October 2023 and two wars with Iran last year and this year.

With recent major opinion polls showing him trailing the opposition by a narrow margin, analyses suggest he sought to use tensions with Iran as a card to rally his base ahead of the election.

Current and former Israeli security officials have expressed concern that launching a war so close to an election could severely undermine democratic processes.

On the other hand, from President Trump's perspective, an escalation of conflict in the Middle East could act as a major disadvantage in the elections.

Striking Iran risks entangling U.S. troops and neighboring Arab nations in a war, and above all, could trigger a surge in energy prices that would pose a political burden ahead of the midterms.

Both Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump sought to attack Iran, and respectively prevented it, driven by elections tied to their political fates.

Although the large-scale airstrike has been scrapped for now, the situation in Iran remains unstable.

The Israeli military has canceled leaves for all soldiers during the election period and is maintaining an exceptional state of alert.

Furthermore, both Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump have raised the level of threats against Iran, stating that "the job must be finished" and leaving open the possibility of resuming attacks, meaning tensions are expected to persist for the time being.