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US Points to Dissent in Iran in Wake of Deadly Drone Strike

Associated Press

   WASHINGTON - U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper and other administration
   officials joined President Donald Trump in trying to draw attention to
   dissent in Iran instead of lingering questions about the scale of the
   threat used to justify a drone strike on Iran's top military leader.

   Esper added to the uncertainty over the intelligence behind this
   month's killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani when he said Sunday that he
   had seen no hard evidence that four American embassies had been under
   possible threat. Trump said last Friday that Soleimani had been
   planning such an attack.

   In appearances on Sunday news shows, both Esper and national security
   adviser Robert O'Brien said they agreed that Iran might have hit more
   than just the U.S. Embassy in the Iraqi capital. "It is certainly
   consistent with the intelligence to assume that they would have hit
   embassies in at least four countries," O'Brien said.

   But Esper, when asked whether there was a specific piece of evidence,
   replied: "I didn't see one with regard to four embassies." And in
   response to a question about whether Trump was "embellishing" the
   threat, Esper said, "I don't believe so."

   In a tweet both defiant and dismissive, Trump turned his attention
   again to supporting Iranian protesters and warning the Iranian
   government not to attack them or to pursue nuclear weapons. He tweeted:
   "National Security Adviser suggested today that sanctions & protests
   have Iran 'choked off', will force them to negotiate. Actually, I
   couldn't care less if they negotiate. Will be totally up to them but,
   no nuclear weapons and 'don't kill your protesters.'

   O'Brien had suggested the United States sees this moment as an
   opportunity to further intensify pressure on Iran's leaders, with whom
   the U.S. has been at odds for four decades. Iran's leaders already are
   under enormous strain from economic sanctions that have virtually
   strangled Iran's main source of income -- oil exports. Esper said
   street protests in Tehran show the Iranian people are hungry for a more
   accountable government after leaders denied, then admitted shooting
   down a Ukrainian passenger plane.

   "You can see the Iranian people are standing up and asserting their
   rights, their aspirations for a better government -- a different
   regime," Esper said.
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