White House asked Pentagon to 'draw up plans to strike Iran': report

AFPJanuary 14, 2019 Facebook Count

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The White House demanded that the military draft plans for strikes on Iran after attacks in Iraq
last year, sparking concern at the Pentagon and State Department, the Wall Street Journal
reported on Sunday.

The report said the move followed a mortar attack launched by an an allegedly Iran-linked group
on the Baghdad diplomatic quarters home to the US embassy in September. No one was hurt by
the shells, which landed in an open lot.

But the White House National Security Council (NSC) sought to develop a forceful American
response to the low-scale attack, including options for a strike against the Islamic republic, WSJ
reported.

It added that the NSC also requested options to respond with strikes in Iraq and Syria.

"It definitely rattled people," a former senior US administration official told the newspaper.
"People were shocked. It was mind-boggling how cavalier they were about hitting Iran."

Although the Defense Department did develop proposals for a possible strike, the WSJ said it
was unclear whether they were shared with the White House.

In one NSC meeting, then deputy national security adviser Mira Ricardel called the attacks in Iraq
an "act of war" and called for a decisive US response.

Pentagon officials stressed that it was not unusual for the Defense Department to draw up
military plans for the White House.

"The Department of Defense is a planning organisation and provides the president military
options for a variety of threats," Colonel Rob Manning, a Pentagon spokesman, told AFP.

He said the Pentagon's activities include "routinely reviewing and updating plans and activities to
deal with a host of threats, including those posed by Iran, to deter and, if necessary, to respond
to aggression."

Asked about the report during his Middle East trip, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declined
to comment.

After the attack in Baghdad, the White House warned that "the United States will hold the
regime in Tehran accountable for any attack that results in injury to our personnel or damage to
United States government facilities."

"America will respond swiftly and decisively in defence of American lives," it added.

National Security Adviser John Bolton, a known Iran hawk, has pressed for regime change in the
Islamic republic. He penned a 2015 New York Times opinion piece prior to his current role titled
'To stop Iran's bomb,