Trump-Iran news: President claims he called off airstrikes on Tehran after general told him '150 people would die'
White House reportedly approves then abruptly pulls back from offensive in Middle East
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump approved military strikes against Iran before abruptly pulling back at the last minute, sparking controversy and outcry.
“On Monday they shot down an unmanned drone flying in International Waters. We were cocked & loaded to retaliate last night on 3 different sights when I asked, how many will die. 150 people, sir, was the answer from a General. 10 minutes before the strike I stopped it, not proportionate to shooting down an unmanned drone,” the president explained in a series of tweets.
Having responded to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ decision to shoot down the costly US Navy surveillance drone with a surface-to-air missile, the president said Tehran had made “a very big mistake” but ultimately refrained from going through with an operation that would have targetted radars and missile batteries in the Gulf.
The president said on Friday the US was “cocked and loaded” to retaliate against Iran for downing the unmanned American surveillance drone but he cancelled the strikes minutes before they were to be launched after being told 150 people could die.
Mr Trump’s tweeted statement raised important questions, including why he learned about possible deaths only at the last minute.
His stance was the latest example of the president showing some reluctance to escalate tensions with Iran into open military conflict.
He did not rule out a future strike but said in a TV interview that the likelihood of casualties from the Thursday night plan to attack three sites in Iran did not seem like the correct response to shooting down an unmanned drone earlier in the day in the Strait of Hormuz.
“I didn’t think it was proportionate,” he said in an interview with NBC News’ Meet the Press.
The aborted attack was the closest the US has come to a direct military strike on Iran in the year since the administration pulled out of the 2015 international agreement intended to curb the Iranian nuclear program and launched a campaign of increasing economic pressure against the Islamic Republic.
Mr Trump told NBC News that he never gave a final order to launch the strikes — planes were not yet in the air but would have been “pretty soon.”
Additional reporting by AP. Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load
Donald Trump has given an explanation for why he called off airstrikes against Iran on Thursday night.
In a series of tweets, he claims it was because of the likely loss of life that would have been 'not proportionate' to the downing of a US drone.
Here's more on Donald Trump's explanation for why he called off the airstrikes against Iran.
CNN's security correspondent points out an obvious flaw in Trump's explanation of his conduct, which spins his decision not to go through with the airstrikes as a compassionate gesture, responding to intel only offered when asked for by an unnamed general.
George Conway, among many others, is not particularly impressed with this morning's events.
More stonewalling from the Trump administration: former business associate and real estate adviser Felix Sater has failed to show up before the House Intelligence Committee despite promising to "answer every question" and will now be issued with a subpoena.
Federal prosecutors are investigating whether Elliott Broidy, a fundraiser and former deputy finance chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), abused his position to improperly offer access to President Trump's inauguration for wealthy clients, The Wall Street Journal reports today.
Broidy allegedly invited Angolan and Romnanian officials to the president's big day on 20 January 2017, introducing them to members of Congress despite his not being a registered lobbyist, with his company Cirinicus later pocketing $6m (£4.7m) for their trouble.
A spokesman for the company told The Journal that the guests were approved by the State Department but did not comment further on the investigation into potential violation of campaign finance laws.
Broidy resigned from the RNC last April after it was revealed he had paid a woman $1.6m (£1.3m) after she became pregnant with his child. He has also been accused of physically abusing a Playboy model but has denied the allegation.
Here's the Vatican imploring god to intervene in Trump's decision-making.
Republicans are calling on the president to respond to Iran shooting down a US drone after he reportedly called off a retaliatory attack last night -
Donald Trump has a fairly quiet press schedule for the day, beginning with his intelligence briefing at 11:30am, lunch with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at 12:30pm and a briefing on the 2019 hurricane season at 2:30, where he’ll be joined by the first lady.
The president and first lady will also later join the Congressional picnic at 5:45.
Donald Trump has sought to explain why he abandoned plans to launch airstrikes on Iran, claiming US forces were "cocked and loaded to retaliate".
In a series of tweets on Friday morning, the US president claimed he called off the operation over a fear the likely loss of life would be "not proportionate" to the downing of a US drone in the Strait of Hormuz.
"On Monday they shot down an unmanned drone flying in International Waters," Mr Trump incorrectly said. The drone was shot down on Thursday.
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