Trump Snubbed National Security Team Over Iran Strikes: 'They Want to Push Us Into War'
Sputnik,
22 June, 2019
It
was earlier reported that while President Donald Trump had "agonised"
over a decision whether to attack Iran over a downed US drone, his
team, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security
Adviser John Bolton and CIA Director Gina Haspel, incited him to
unleash fire and fury on the Islamic Republic.
President
Donald Trump stood up to his national security team by deciding
not to go ahead with retaliatory strikes on
Iran earlier this week, The
Wall Street Journal reported.
"These
people want to push us into a war, and it's so disgusting. We don't
need any more wars", the commander-in-chief is alleged to have
told one confidant about his advisers, per the WSJ.
While
lamenting the loss of a $130-million drone shot
down by
an Iranian missile, Trump chose not to retaliate because he
reportedly thought that American voters would have been more outraged
over human losses than lost funds.
The
White House hasn't commented on the claims so far.
The
report comes just a day after the US president told reporters that he
has confidence in National Security Adviser John Bolton even though
he disagreed with
him on a number of issues, including his policies in the Middle East.
"I
disagree very much with John Bolton. His attitude in the Middle East
and Iraq - going into Iraq, I think that was a big mistake and I've
been proven right but I've been against that forever. John Bolton is
doing a very good job but he takes a generally tough posture. I have
other people that don't take that posture, but the only one that
matters is me", he said, while describing Bolton as a "hawk".
Asked
about his decision not to attack Iran, Trump said, "Everyone was
saying I'm a warmonger. Now they're saying I'm a dove".
Addressing
the potential casualties of a strike against the Islamic Republic,
the president said that "anything is a lot when they shoot
down an
unmanned [drone]. I didn't like it", and added that Iran was
"very wise" for not hitting a manned aircraft and "we
appreciate" the decision.
The
New York Times earlier
reported that Trump's national security team, including Bolton,
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and CIA Director Gina Haspel, had
unanimously pushed for a missile strike against Iran in response to
the downing of a US drone on 20 June.
Trump
decided not to go ahead with the strike just 10
minutes before
it was supposed to be carried out, explaining in a tweet - and later
in an NBC interview - that the death of approximately 150 people
was disproportionate to
the loss of an unmanned aerial vehicle. Instead, he announced a new
set of "major" additional sanctions against
the Islamic Republic that will take effect on Monday, 24 June.
Reacting
to Trump's move, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi
said on Saturday that the country would defend its borders
"regardless
of any decision"
that Washington may take.
The
strike on Iran was supposed to be Washington's response to the
downing of a US
Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk spy
drone on 20 June by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Tehran maintains that the UAV violated the
country's airspace in the southern Hormozgan Province and was warned
several times to change its course prior to being brought down.
Meanwhile, the US claims the drone was operating over international
waters in the Strait of Hormuz at the time.
While
slamming the incident as a dangerous provocation, Iran also said that
its air defence troops had refrained from
shooting down a US reconnaissance plane with 35 airmen on board that
was flying not far from the drone to avoid causalties.
The
episode adds to the already sour relations between the two countries
that have gone into a downward spiral since the US unilaterally
pulled out from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in May 2018 and re-imposed
sanctions against the country.
In
light of the mounting tensions with Tehran, Washington has
likewise boosted
its military presence in
the Middle East, deploying an aircraft carrier strike group, a bomber
task force, and 1,000 additional troops to the region to send a
"clear and unmistakable" message to Iran.
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