{"id":76541,"date":"2018-04-16T06:53:12","date_gmt":"2018-04-16T13:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=76541"},"modified":"2018-04-16T06:53:12","modified_gmt":"2018-04-16T13:53:12","slug":"trump-wanted-to-bomb-russian-iranian-targets-amid-syria-strikes-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/04\/16\/trump-wanted-to-bomb-russian-iranian-targets-amid-syria-strikes-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump wanted to bomb Russian & Iranian targets amid Syria strikes \u2013 report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy RT<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
President Donald Trump reportedly favored bombing Russian and Iranian targets in Syria, before Pentagon chief James Mattis talked the US leader out of it.<\/div>\n
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Trump discussed three military options for Syria last week with his revamped national security team, led by Bush-era hawk John Bolton, the\u00a0Wall Street Journal<\/a>\u00a0reported on Saturday, citing sources familiar with White House decision-making.<\/p>\n

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Read more<\/div>\n

\"ThePrecise, overwhelming and effective \u2013 Pentagon gives details of Syria strike<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

The least expansive option included striking\u00a0a narrow set of targets\u201d<\/em>linked to what the report said were\u00a0Syria\u2019s chemical weapons capabilities.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0The second option proposed targeting a broader set of Syrian targets, including\u00a0suspected chemical-weapons research facilities and military command centers.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Finally, the most aggressive proposal might have included bombing Russian air defenses in Syria, in order to\u00a0cripple the regime\u2019s military capabilities without touching [President Bashar] Assad\u2019s political machinery.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The latter option, which would have been three times as powerful as the one eventually carried out by the US, the UK and France, was reportedly particularly favored by Trump, pressing his team to consider strikes on Russian and Iranian targets in Syria. The US president was willing to go that far to\u00a0get at the Assad regime\u2019s military equipment.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Defense Secretary Mattis, a retired Marine general who gained notoriety during the 2004 siege of Fallujah in Iraq, took a more reasonable stance on the strikes. He argued that hitting Russian or Iranian targets could trigger a dangerous response from Moscow and Tehran, sources told the newspaper.<\/p>\n

However, even newly-appointed National Security Adviser Bolton, who called for Iran to be bombed and who has promoted a muscular policy towards North Korea, did not oppose Mattis\u2019 reasoning. According to WSJ, he realized that\u00a0the most robust option might drag the US more deeply into the conflict\u201d<\/em>\u00a0and felt\u00a0that was too much for his first week on the job.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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Read more<\/div>\n

\"\"EXCLUSIVE: View of science center in Syria targeted by US-led strikes (VIDEO)<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

Eventually, Trump approved a\u00a0hybrid plan\u201d<\/em>\u00a0that saw over 100 missiles raining down on three Syrian targets early on Saturday morning. Announcing the strikes, Washington as well as London and Paris claimed they came in retaliation for an alleged chemical attack in the Damascus suburb of Douma, which they blamed on Assad\u2019s government. Damascus rejected the accusations, while Moscow maintained the chemical incident was\u00a0orchestrated<\/a>\u00a0by the West to provoke the bombings.<\/p>\n

Prior to the bombing, some senior Russian officials\u00a0signaled<\/a>\u00a0Moscow was ready to repel inbound US missiles and target their carriers. On April 10, Vladimir Shamanov, formerly an Airborne Troops commander and now head of the State Duma Defense Committee, said the Americans\u00a0should not pin hope on their navy groups,\u201d<\/em>adding Russia could\u00a0take all political and diplomatic measures, and also military measures if such need arises.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

On April 11, Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin warned that\u00a0Russian forces will confront any US aggression on Syria, by intercepting the missiles and striking their launch pads.\u201d<\/em>
\nRepelling the missile strike, Syrian air defenses managed to shoot down 71 out of 103 projectiles, the Russian Defense Ministry said.<\/p>\n

Syria\u2019s Soviet-made S-125, S-200, Buk, and Kvadrat systems were involved in the operation. The Pentagon, however, said Syrian resistance was ineffective and had no bearing on the aerial assault.
\nThe attack was not coordinated with Russia, but\u00a0the de-confliction channel [between US and Russian forces] operated before and after the strike,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0said Lieutenant General Kenneth F. McKenzie, the director of the Joint Staff.\u00a0The Russian air defenses weren\u2019t employed\u201d<\/em>\u00a0as Syria was hit by missiles, he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy RT President Donald Trump reportedly favored bombing Russian and Iranian targets in Syria, before Pentagon chief James Mattis talked the US leader out of it. Trump discussed three military options for Syria last week with his revamped national security team, led by Bush-era hawk John Bolton, the\u00a0Wall Street Journal\u00a0reported on Saturday, citing sources familiar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76541\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}