Trump says Iran strikes would not have been 'proportionate'

Sunday, 23 Jun, 2019

Head of the Revolutionary Guard's aerospace division Brig.


"I listen to everybody", Mr. Trump said.

According to the New York Times, Trump approved military strikes against Iran in retaliation for downing an American surveillance drone.

"In any event, Israel will not allow Iran to get nuclear weaponry", he warned.

He added that military action was still "a possibility", while also saying that he hoped "Iran is smart and cares about its people".

He said, he called off the air strike because he doesn't want to kill anyone or anything, unless absolutely necessary. The sanctions had been lifted under the pact in return for Tehran curbing its nuclear programme.

Part of the military escalation tactic pursued by Iran has succeeded.

US President Donald Trump took advice from one of his favourite Fox News anchors, Tucker Carlson, before cancelling a strike on Iran earlier this week.

Iran's foreign minister Javad Zarif tweeted that the US drone had violated Iranian airspace, while the USA insists the unmanned aircraft was in global airspace.

'I really watched him agonize over this. "The president, to his great credit, appears to be sceptical of this - very sceptical", Carlson said onscreen. "And that would be a departure-the President has informed us, for example, in Syria, before we went in".

It's unclear whether Iran's national leadership approved of the strike, a fact that Trump apparently knew as well. Many Republicans, on the other hand, point to past precedent and laws that suggest that - short of declaring war - the commander-in-chief has the authority to take action on his own.

The US Federal Aviation Administration on Thursday issued an emergency order prohibiting US operators from flying in an oversea area of Tehran-controlled airspace over the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman. However, the major event next week will be related to Tehran's decision on whether or not to remain in the NPT.

He added that he would make "well-connected calls" while he was at Camp David this weekend and would consider a potential new deal with Iran.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., wrote that he appreciated the president's "desire to be measured and thoughtful when it comes to Iranian provocations". Meetings about Iran were on the agenda, Trump said. For this reason, it has resolved to invite a United States military response in the hope that Mr Trump will back off under domestic and global pressure. However in May 2018, Mr Trump left the deal. In essence, the aim is to reduce Iran to a semi-colony, more under the boot of United States imperialism than even the US-backed dictatorship of the Shah, overthrown by a popular revolution 40 years ago.

But critics say his policy of "maximum pressure" - including abandonment of an worldwide deal to regulate Iran's nuclear activities, economic sanctions and deployment of extra troops to the region - make war ever more likely.

In this context, Arab Gulf countries must be vigilant of a possible US U-turn. Iran is betting on this, but that strategy could backfire, if it goes too far in provoking United States patriotic sentiment.