Donald Trump reportedly approved then abruptly pulled back from launching military strikes against Iran on Friday morning, amid apparent White House confusion branded a “clear risk” to national security by a former US government foreign policy adviser.
Having initially said he believed Iran had made “a very big mistake” when it shot down a US drone early on Thursday in the Strait of Hormuz, the president is nonetheless believed to have approved retaliatory military strikes against Tehran.
The operation to hit targets such as radars and missile batteries was in its initial stages, The New York Times said, and planes were in the air and ships had been moved into position. But before any missiles were fired, the president decided not to go ahead with the operation.
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Ben Rhodes, Barack Obama’s former deputy national security adviser, claimed the “absence of any rational, coherent process for national security decision-making has always been a clear risk under Trump… Now we see what that looks like in a crisis.”
It was not clear if Mr Trump had changed his mind, or whether the strike was called off for operational or strategic reasons, said the report.
At the same time, the Federal Aviation Administration issued an emergency order prohibiting US operators from flying in airspace controlled by Iran above “the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman”.
The order came as United Airlines suspended its Mumbai-Newark flight that passes over Iran citing safety concerns, The Financial Times said.
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“It’s really hard to say with President Trump, and I certainly wouldn’t consider myself to be a Trump whisperer, but somebody obviously got to him, and whether that was Tucker Carlson from . News or prime minister Justin Trudeau, it’s hard to say,” says Dr Karin von Hippel of the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, attempting to explain the president’s drastic retreat from attacking Iran.
Dr Von Hippel was referring to the . anchor who is thought to serve as Trump’s unofficial adviser on the politics of attacking Iran and to the Canadian premier, who was at the White House on Thursday for a working lunch.
“[Carlson] has been anti-war in the Middle East, and he’s been pushing Trump very hard not to do anything with Iran, and even challenged [secretary of state Mike] Pompeo’s intelligence briefing the other day on . News, and we know Trump really likes him and listens to him, I just don’t know, but with Trump it seems that he has one approach and it’s the same approach in business as foreign policy, and he likes to push very hard to the brink, and he assumes others will cave, and in foreign policy it just doesn’t work that way.”
“Trump is trying to show he’s tough, but he’s very nervous about war, and that’s actually reassuring,” Dr Von Hippel continued.
“He has John Bolton and Pompeo on the one side pushing him very hard, super hawkish on Iran, and he himself had promised not to go to war in the Middle East… He wants to appear tough without actually doing anything significant.”
Good morning and welcome to The Independent‘s live coverage of the day’s developments both in Washington and the Middle East.
Donald Trump reportedly approved then abruptly pulled back from launching military strikes against Iran on Friday morning, amid apparent White House confusion branded a “clear risk” to national security by a former US government foreign policy adviser.
Having initially said he believed Iran had made “a very big mistake” when it shot down a US drone early on Thursday in the Strait of Hormuz, the president is nonetheless believed to have approved retaliatory military strikes against Tehran.
The operation to hit targets such as radars and missile batteries was in its initial stages, The New York Times said, and planes were in the air and ships had been moved into position. But before any missiles were fired, the president decided not to go ahead with the operation.
Ben Rhodes, Barack Obama’s former deputy national security adviser, claimed the “absence of any rational, coherent process for national security decision-making has always been a clear risk under Trump… Now we see what that looks like in a crisis.”
It was not clear if Mr Trump had changed his mind, or whether the strike was called off for operational or strategic reasons, said the report.
At the same time, the Federal Aviation Administration issued an emergency order prohibiting US operators from flying in airspace controlled by Iran above “the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman”.
The order came as United Airlines suspended its Mumbai-Newark flight that passes over Iran citing safety concerns, The Financial Times said.
Our US correspondent Andrew Buncombe has the latest.
