Trump’s Pentagon nominee quits, Iran targets CIA
Published on: Thursday, June 20, 2019
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump lost his nominee for Pentagon chief, adding to the volatility in a tense standoff with Iran, which claimed to have dismantled a CIA network.
Foreign powers are watching the situation in the Mideast with growing concern as Tehran and Washington exchange warnings about an escalation in their conflict.
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Trump—in his latest comments that appear to contradict more hardline advisors—told TIME magazine late Monday he considers explosions on two oil tankers, blamed by Washington on Iran, to have been only “very minor.”
But his policy was thrown into further uncertainty by the abrupt withdrawal of his pick for defense secretary.
Trump announced on Twitter that Patrick Shanahan was quitting to spend time with his family. The former Boeing executive has seen his candidacy bogged down for months in Congress and the last straw appeared to be revelations of violent incidents during his previous marriage.
Trump named army secretary Mark Esper as his new pick. He will start work on June 24.
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The upheaval leaves the Pentagon without a permanent boss since the shock resignation of the respected James Mattis in December last year.
Despite Trump’s comments to TIME, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Iran that the United States is serious about curbing what it calls Iranian aggression.
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Another 1,000 troops were ordered to deploy on Monday, in addition to powerful air and naval forces sent earlier.
That deployment should “convince the Islamic government of Iran that we are serious and to deter them from further aggression in the region,” Pompeo said.
Trump also told TIME he would “certainly” order a war if necessary to stop Iran getting nuclear weapons—something the country says it does not want to do.
In Tehran, officials said they had dismantled a US spy network.
Tehran’s announcement came a day after it said its uranium stockpile would from June 27 begin to surpass a limit agreed in a 2015 international nuclear deal that Trump unilaterally abandoned in May last year.
Tensions between Tehran and Washington have grown ever since, with the US bolstering its military presence in the region, reimposing sanctions and blacklisting Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization.
“Following clues in the American intelligence services, we recently found the new recruits Americans had hired and dismantled a new network,” Iran’s state news agency Irna said, quoting an intelligence ministry official.
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