This morning at 11:30 President Trump gave an address the nation from the White House regarding last night’s Iranian missile attack on the Iraqi bases that housed our troops. You can watch the full address below, which starts at 35:40 minute mark:
In short, Trump said that Iran appears to be standing down after the attack which only caused minimal damage. Trump said no lives were lost, in part due to precautions that were taken as well as an early warning system that worked very well.
Trump seemed to be signaling that the US would not retaliate and called on Iran to de-escalate tensions and come to the negotiating table. Trump will impose more sanctions and ask NATO to become more involved in the Middle East.
Trump also pointed out that the missiles that were fired in last night’s attack were paid for by money that was made available to Iran from the Obama administration. Watch the video above for more.
In related news, I reported this morning that Iran warned Iraq of the attacks before they happened. Since then I’ve also found reporting that suggests Iraq then tipped off the US about the attack as well, allowing them to take cover:
“An Arab diplomatic source told CNN that Iraq gave advance warning to the United States on “which bases would be hit” after Iranian officials passed on the information.
A US defense official said Iraqis were told by Iran to stay away from certain bases.”
US officials also confirmed to USA Today that they did have advance warning of the attack, writing “U.S. officials had advance warning of Iran’s missile assault that damaged two Iraqi bases housing U.S. and coalition forces, a U.S. official told USA TODAY.”
Via TRS
