Pentagon tells Congress no sign that Iran was going to attack US first, sources say

Officials emphasised that Iran’s ballistic missiles and proxy forces in the region posed an imminent threat to US interests. Read more at straitstimes.com.

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WASHINGTON - Trump administration officials acknowledged in closed-door briefings with congressional staff on March 1 that there was no intelligence suggesting Iran planned to attack US forces first, two people familiar with the matter said.

The United States and Israel launched their most ambitious attacks on Iran in decades on Feb 28, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sinking Iranian warships and hitting more than 1,000 targets so far, officials say.

But March 1’s remarks to Congress appeared to undercut one of the key arguments for the war made by senior administration officials.

They told reporters the day before that US President Donald Trump decided to launch the attacks in part because of indicators that Iranians might strike US forces in the Middle East “perhaps preemptively.”

Mr Trump, one of the officials said, was not going to “sit back and allow American forces in the region to absorb attacks.”