WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Mark Esper says he doesn't foresee further Iranian military attacks in retaliation for the U.S. strike that killed the Islamic Republic's most powerful general.
The Pentagon chief says Iran's paramilitary Quds Force still presents a threat across the Mideast. But Esper says the specific attacks he says were being planned by the late Gen. Qassem Soleimani have been "disrupted."
Esper tells CBS's "Face the Nation" that the Trump administration's offer to negotiate a new nuclear deal with Iran without precondition still stands, even as Tehran faces domestic protests over its handling of the shootdown of a Ukrainian airliner.
As the Associated Press reports, Esper was asked during a Fox News interview about President Trump's statement that he believed Soleimani had been plotting to attack four U.S. embassies. The defense secretary said he shared that belief, that Soleimani was planning attacks on U.S. facilities, but he did not say those planned attacks included four embassies.
National security adviser Robert O'Brien told Fox News Sunday that the Trump administration is "not talking about regime change," going on to say that the U.S. wants "to see an Iran that forswears nuclear weapons."