Pentagon tells Congress no sign that Iran was going to attack US first, sources say
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WASHINGTON, March 1 (Reuters) - Trump administration officials acknowledged in closed-door briefings with congressional staff on Sunday that there was no intelligence suggesting Iran planned to attack U.S. forces first, two people familiar with the matter said.
The United States and Israel launched their most ambitious attacks on Iran in decades on Saturday, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sinking Iranian warships and hitting more than 1,000 targets so far, officials say.
But Sunday's remarks to Congress appeared to undercut one of the key arguments for the war made by senior administration officials.
They told reporters the day before that President Donald Trump decided to launch the attacks in part because of indicators that Iranians might strike U.S. forces in the Middle East "perhaps preemptively."
Trump, one of the officials said, was not going to "sit back and allow American forces in the region to absorb attacks."
PENTAGON BRIEFINGS LASTED MORE THAN 90 MINUTES
Pentagon officials briefed Democratic and Republican staff of several national security committees in both the Senate and the House of Representatives for more than 90 minutes on the unfolding U.S. attack in Iran, White House spokesperson Dylan Johnson said earlier.
In the briefings, administration officials emphasized that Iran's ballistic missiles and proxy forces in the region posed an imminent threat to U.S. interests, but there was no intelligence about Tehran attacking U.S. forces first, the two sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters. Trump said the attack, which is expected to run for weeks, aimed to ensure Iran could not have a nuclear weapon, contain its missile program and eliminate threats to the United States and its allies. He has urged Iranians to rise up and topple the government.
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