BICOM

The US administration reportedly asked its top military officers to prepare a plan to attack Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

The US National Security Council (NSC), led by John Bolton, asked the Pentagon to draw up options for military strikes against Iran after a mortar attack in Iraq last September which exploded near the US embassy in Baghdad. Two days later a second mortar attack, in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, hit relatively close to the American consulate, but caused no serious damage.

A former senior US administration official said people in the State Department and Pentagon: “Were shocked [about the request]. It was mind-boggling how cavalier they were about hitting Iran.” Since taking over as National Security Adviser Bolton has promoted a more aggressive policy against Iranian expansion in the region. In September he warned that there would be “hell to pay” if Iran threatened America or its allies.

US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, declined to comment on the report on Sunday when questioned by reporters on his nine nation tour of the Middle East. On Sunday he flew from Qatar to Saudi Arabia, where he is due to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

NSC spokesman Garrett Marquis said the council: “Provides the president with options to anticipate and respond to a variety of threats. We continue to review the status of our personnel following attempted attacks on our embassy in Baghdad and our Basra consulate, and we will consider a full range of options to preserve their safety and our interests.” The NSC also reportedly asked the Pentagon to provide the White House with options to respond with strikes in Iraq and Syria as well.

The AP reported yesterday that Ali Akbar Saleh, head of Iran’s nuclear programme, announced that Iran has begun “preliminary activities for designing” a modern process for 20 percent uranium enrichment for its 50-year-old research reactor in Tehran. Resuming enrichment at that level would be a violation of the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal, which caps uranium enrichment at 3.67 per cent for 15 years.