US lawmakers on both sides of the aisle called on the Trump administration to be more open about its strategy on Iran as tensions between Washington and Tehran escalated sharply.
Republicans and administration officials defended the recent steps, including the State Department’s order for some embassy personnel in Baghdad to leave the country as prudent precautionary measures, even as skepticism about some administration claims mounts and concerns about a conflict grow.
Concerns
The administration is moving to quell lawmakers’ frustration by holding a briefing on Thursday for the Senate and House leaders from both parties as well as the top Republican and Democratic members of each chamber’s intelligence committee.
But Democrats are calling for a broader briefing after reports that National Security Adviser John Bolton ordered updates to a military plan to send 120,000 troops to the Middle East should Iran attack US forces or escalate its nuclear activities.
Their concerns have been deepened by a discrepancy between the administration’s repeated insistence that Iran is posing an increased threat to US personnel in Syria and Iraq and the remarks of a British major general who serves as the deputy commander of the anti-ISIS coalition. Major General Chris Ghika flatly said the threat level from Iran has not changed. The British Defense Ministry backed his assessment Wednesday.
« There’s an alarming lack of clarity here, » Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor Wednesday. « There’s a lack of strategy and there’s a lack of consultation. »
Schumer said he thought that acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joseph Dunford, might brief senators next week.
« An adventure like this, 120,000 troops or a large number of troops, should have to be approved by Congress. It should certainly be discussed with the Congress, » Schumer said. « The President ought to come up with a strategy and make it clear to Congress. President Trump, what is your strategy? Where are you headed and why aren’t you talking to Congress about it? »
Republican Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas, emerging from a classified briefing with the CIA director and NSA director on global threats, told CNN he thinks « there is a lot more to be known before decisions are made » about possible military responses to Iran.
Moran, a member of the Defense Appropriations subcommittee that held the briefing in the Capitol, said he hadn’t reached a conclusion about the differing US and British views on the Iranian threat.
