From the BBC:
“US-Iran: Trump says military was 'cocked and loaded' to
retaliate”
President Donald Trump has said the US military was
"cocked and loaded to retaliate" against Iran, but he changed his
mind 10 minutes before planned strikes. Attacks on three sites were planned in
response to the shooting down of a US unmanned drone this week. Mr Trump said
he had called off strikes after being told 150 people would die. He tweeted:
"10 minutes before the strike I stopped it, not proportionate to shooting
down an unmanned drone." The late reversal was first reported by the New
York Times on Thursday night. The newspaper said the operation had been
"in its early stages" when Mr Trump stood the US military down. "I
am in no hurry," Mr Trump said on Friday. "Our military is rebuilt,
new, and ready to go, by far the best in the world." Mr Trump said Iran had downed the drone on
Monday, despite an earlier US military statement that the incident happened at
23:35 GMT on Wednesday (04:05 Iran time on Thursday). On Friday, the president
told NBC News that he decided not to give final approval to the planned strikes
because of the predicted death toll. "I didn't like it. I didn't think it
was proportionate," he said. Tehran says the unmanned US aircraft entered
Iranian airspace early on Thursday morning. The US maintains it was shot down
in international airspace. Tensions have been escalating between the two
countries, with the US recently blaming Iran for attacks on oil tankers
operating in the region. Iran has announced it will soon exceed international
agreed limits on its nuclear programme. Last year, the US unilaterally pulled
out of a 2015 nuclear deal aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear activities. "Iran can NEVER have nuclear
weapons," Mr Trump said in his tweets on the aborted strikes - also
revealing that increased economic sanctions against Iran were "added last
night". The US has now asked the United Nations Security Council to meet
on Monday to discuss Iran, Reuters news agency reports.
What had been planned?
In its initial report, The New York Times said that as late
as 19:00 local time (23:00 GMT) on Thursday, US military and diplomatic
officials had still expected the strikes to take place on agreed targets,
including Iranian radar and missile batteries. "Planes were in the air and
ships were in position, but no missiles had been fired when word came to stand
down," the newspaper reported, citing an unnamed senior administration
official. But Mr Trump refuted this report on Friday, telling NBC that no
planes were in the air. The strikes had been set to take place just before dawn
on Friday to minimise risk to the Iranian military or to civilians, the New
York Times report added. Tweeting on Friday, Mr Trump said three sites had been
targeted. The Associated Press quoted a
US official as saying the strikes had been recommended by the Pentagon and had
been among options presented to senior administration officials. According to
the New York Times, top Pentagon officials warned a military response could
result in a spiralling escalation with risks for US forces in the region. The
operation was called off after President Trump spent most of Thursday
discussing Iran with his national security advisers and congressional leaders,
AP reports. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor
John Bolton had pushed for a hardline stance, but congressional leaders urged
caution, the agency says. Iran released footage purportedly showing the launch of an
Iranian surface-to-air missile to shoot down the US drone Separately, Reuters quoted two Iranian
officials as saying Tehran had received a message from Mr Trump through Oman
overnight warning about an imminent US attack. That report was later denied by
a spokesman for Iran's national security council, who said there was no truth
to it and no message was sent.
What does Iran say?
An official warned that "any attack against Iran will
have regional and international consequences". "When you violate
Iranian territorial space, then we defend," Seyed Sajjadpour, one of
Iran's Deputy Foreign Ministers, told the BBC. He also said it was clear that
there were members of Donald Trump's administration who were intent on
overthrowing Iran's government.
What other reaction has there been?
In the US, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said America
had no appetite for war with Iran, while the leading candidate for the
Democratic presidential nomination, Joe Biden, called Mr Trump's Iran strategy
a "self-inflicted disaster". Russian President Vladimir Putin said a
war would be a "catastrophe with unpredictable consequences". UN
Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged all parties to exercise maximum
restraint. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an emergency
order on Thursday evening prohibiting US airlines from operating in an
overwater area of Tehran-controlled airspace nearby in response. Airlines from
other countries, including Britain's British Airways, the Dutch carrier KLM,
Emirates, and Qantas of Australia, have also said they will re-route their
flights to avoid parts of Iran. President Trump's
decision to order – and then abort – an attack still sends a powerful message
to Tehran. The two countries came to the
brink of direct conflict. But in this complex game of signalling, just what
message will the Iranian leadership receive? It, after all, had sent a significant warning
of its own by downing an unmanned US reconnaissance drone. Mr Trump initially appeared to play down the
incident – but then apparently came the orders for a US retaliatory strike.
That was followed by a last-minute change of heart. The danger now is that Iran receives mixed
messages that convey uncertainty and lack of resolve. This might encourage some
in Tehran to push back at the Americans even harder. There appears to be no diplomatic
"off-ramp" in this crisis. US
economic sanctions are hitting home. Tehran is under pressure. Escalation
remains an ever-present danger.
What happened with the drone?
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced its
air force had shot down a US "spy" drone on Thursday morning after
the unmanned aircraft violated Iranian airspace near Kuhmobarak in the southern
province of Hormozgan. IRGC commander-in-chief Maj-Gen Hossein Salami said the
drone's downing was a "clear message" to the US that Iran's borders
were "our red line". However, US military officials maintain the
drone was in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz at the time. Iranian
officials say two warnings were issued 10 minutes before the drone was shot
down. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, a high-ranking
officer in the IRGC, said another military aircraft, carrying 35 passengers,
had been flying close to the drone. "We could have shot down that one too,
but we did not," he said. The shooting down of the drone followed
accusations by the US that Iran had attacked two oil tankers with mines last
Thursday just outside the Strait of Hormuz, in the Gulf of Oman.
^ In this one case I have to agree that the drone was shot
down in international airspace. If it was going to be used as a pawn in
starting a war between the US and Iran than after the Iranians shot it down
Trump would have simply retaliated and bombed Iran – regardless of how many
people would have been killed. The fact that he didn’t (that he showed
restraint) shows that he is not simply trying to find any and all excuses to
attack Iran. ^
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