Trump approves a military attack against Iran and at the last minute retracts it.
The mission was reversed when airplanes were in the air and the boats were in position, affirmed the New York newspaper officials familiarized with the intense discussions in the White House, following the downing of a US drone.
The FAA prohibited commercial flights from the United States from crossing Iranian airspace, until further notice.
President Donald Trump initially approved military attacks against Iran in retaliation for the shooting down of a US surveillance drone, but on Thursday night he reversed the order amid intense debates at the White House, according to the newspaper The New York Times senior administration officials involved in the deliberations. Other media later confirmed the information.
The White House has not denied the information. For now, it is unknown why Trump decided to reverse the operation.
Alegidly Iran on Thursday shot down a US drone that flew, according to Iranian officials, into IRAN airspace, but Washington says the drone was in international airspace.
On Friday, the Iranian Armed Forces said they sent several warnings to the drone before shooting it down on Thursday. The subcommander of the air defense base Khatam al Anbia, Qader Rahimí, stressed that these warnings and the flight route “are registered,” according to EFE, citing Iranian state television.
Rahimí stressed that the device was shot down “as a result of the US’s invasive behavior and indifference towards the rights of other countries.”
In this regard, he said that the drone violated international standards when crossing Iranian borders and entering its territorial waters.
In the same vein, the Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohamad Yavad Zarif, insisted that the device took off from the United Arab Emirates “in hidden mode and violated Iranian airspace,” something that the United States denies.
“We have recovered remains of the US military plane in OUR territorial waters, where it was shot down,” Zarif wrote in his official Twitter account.
“You will know,” Trump warned at noon on Thursday from the White House to journalists who asked him if the United States will go to a war with Iran. “They made a serious mistake,” he insisted, noting that they had “scientific” evidence to show that the drone was in the international space.
The sources assured the Times that the president had initially approved attacks against a handful of Iranian targets, such as radar and missile batteries, but abruptly the mission was reversed when airplanes were in the air and the ships were in position.
They had not attacked the targets.
