Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Trump calls off airstrike
US ‘cocked and loaded’ to retaliate, but president changes his mind
PRESIDENT Donald Trump said yesterday that the US had been “cocked and loaded” to retaliate against Iran for downing an American surveillance drone, but cancelled the missile strikes 10 minutes before they were to be executed after being told some 150 people could die.
Trump tweeted that the US would never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. But he said he was in no hurry to respond to the downing of the US surveillance drone over the Strait of Hormuz. His statement was the latest indication that he does not want to escalate the clash with Tehran, but he did not rule out a future US strike.
He said US economic sanctions were crippling the Iranian economy and more were being added.
Iran claimed that it had issued several warnings before shooting down the drone over what it said was its territory.
The head of the Revolutionary Guard’s aerospace division, General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, said in an interview with Iranian state television yesterday Iran had warned the US military surveillance drone several times before launching a missile at it. Debris from what Iranian authorities described as pieces of the US Navy RQ-4A Global Hawk lay behind him.
Hajizadeh told state TV: “Unfortunately they did not answer.”
The US had made preparations for a military strike against Iran in retaliation for the downing of the drone, but the operation was abruptly called off with just hours to go, a US official said earlier.
The official, who was not authorised to discuss the operation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the targets would have included radars and missile batteries. The New York Times reported that Trump had approved the strikes on Thursday night, but then called them off. The newspaper cited anonymous senior administration officials. Asked earlier about a US response to the attack, Trump said: “You’ll soon find out.”
The swift reversal was a stark reminder of the serious risk of military conflict between US and Iranian forces as the Trump administration combines a “maximum pressure” campaign of economic sanctions with a build-up of American forces in the region. As tension mounted in recent weeks, there have been growing fears that either side could make a dire miscalculation that leads to war.
According to the official who spoke to The Associated Press, the strikes were recommended by the Pentagon and were among the options presented to senior administration officials.
It was unclear how far the preparations had gone. The military operation was called off around 7.30pm Washington time, after Trump had spent most of Thursday discussing Iran strategy with top national security advisers and congressional leaders.
The downing of the drone – an unmanned aircraft which has a wingspan wider than a Boeing 737 – over the Strait of Hormuz prompted accusations from the US and Iran about who was the aggressor. Iran insisted the drone violated Iranian airspace; Washington said it had been flying over international waters.
Trump’s initial comments on the attack were succinct.
He declared in a tweet that “Iran made a very big mistake!” But he also suggested that shooting down the drone had been a foolish error rather than an intentional escalation, suggesting he may have been looking for some way to avoid a crisis.
“I find it hard to believe it was intentional, if you want to know the truth,” Trump said at the White House. “I think that it could have been somebody who was loose and stupid that did it.”
Trump, who has said he wants to avoid war and negotiate with Iran over its nuclear ambitions, cast the incident as “a new wrinkle... a new fly in the ointment”. Yet he also said “this country will not stand for it, that I can tell you”.
He said the drone had been unarmed and unmanned and “clearly over international waters”. It would have “made a big, big difference” if someone had been inside, he said.
But fears of open conflict shadowed much of the discourse in Washington. As the day wore on, Trump summoned his top national security advisers and congressional leaders to the White House for an hour-long briefing in the Situation Room. Attendees included Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, National Security Adviser John Bolton, CIA director Gina Haspel, Joint Chiefs Chairman General Joseph Dunford, acting Defence Secretary Patrick Shanahan and Army Secretary Mark Esper, who Trump has said he’ll nominate as Pentagon chief.
On Capitol Hill, leaders urged caution and some lawmakers insisted the White House must consult with Congress before taking any actions.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said no specific options for a US response were presented at the meeting.
And late on Thursday, House Republicans on the Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and Armed Services committees issued a statement using the same word, saying: “There must be a measured response to these actions.”
In Iran, the paramilitary guard, which answers only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said it shot down the drone at 4.05am on Thursday when it entered Iranian airspace near the Kouhmobarak district in southern Iran’s Hormozgan province. Kouhmobarak is about 1 200km south-east of Tehran.
Taking issue with the US version of where the attack occurred, Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that his country had retrieved sections of the military drone “in our territorial waters where it was shot down”. He said, “We don’t seek war but will zealously defend our skies, land and waters.” |