President Trump approves Iran strikes, abruptly withdraws decision: report

WASHINGTON: President Trump had approved military strikes against Iran in retaliation after the country downed an American surveillance drone, but pulled back from the decision, the New York Times said in a report.

According to the report at 7 p.m. on Thursday, officials were expecting a strike, after intense debate at the White House among the president’s top national security team and congressional leaders.

The president had approved attacks on some of Iranian targets, like radar and missile batteries, officials said.

The operation however, was called off when underway in its early stages , NYT report said citing a senior administration official.

The abrupt reversal put a halt to what would have been Trump’s third military action against targets in the Middle East. He had struck twice at Syrian targets, in 2017 and 2018.

The reason behind US President’s pullback from the decision was unclear so far. It was also not clear whether the attacks might still go forward, the report said.

The White House as well as Pentagon officials declined to comment over the questions, NYT report said.

United States retaliation plan was intended as a response to the Iran’s shooting down of the unmanned, $130 million surveillance drone, which was struck Thursday morning by an Iranian surface-to-air missile, according to a senior administration official.

According to report, the strike was set to take place just before dawn Friday in Iran to minimize risk to the country’s military and civilians.

However, the military received word a short time later that the strike was off.

Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards shot down a U.S. “spy” drone in the southern province of Hormozgan, the Guards’ news website, Sepah News, said on Thursday.

Tension between Iran and the United States has spiked since last year, when President Donald Trump exited a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers and reimposed sanctions on the country.

State news agency IRNA carried the same report, identifying the drone as an “RQ-4 Global Hawk’.

“It was shot down when it entered Iran’s airspace near the Kouhmobarak district in the south,” the Guards’ website added.