NEW YORK, June 23. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump doesn’t want further military engagement in the Middle East, CNN said, citing an unnamed White House official.
However, according to the official, Trump will be ready to escalate the conflict if necessary.
The official said that Washington had anticipated Tehran’s retaliation after the US strikes on its nuclear sites. "We knew they’d retaliate. They had a similar response after Soleimani," the TV channel quoted the official as saying. Iranian General Qasem Soleimani was killed in a US airstrike on the Baghdad airport in 2020. Soleimani’s killing triggered a new spiral of confrontation between the US and Iran as Tehran struck two US military targets in Iraq five days later.
The Iranian state-run broadcasting company said earlier in the day that Tehran has launched a military operation against the US airbase at Al Udeid in Qatar. However, according to the US official, initial assessments indicate that the Iranian missiles failed to hit their designated targets.
Overnight into June 13, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion targeting Iran’s nuclear program. Iran responded in less than 24 hours. Since then, Tel Aviv and Tehran have been exchanging strikes. Both parties reported casualties and damage, and admitted that a number of facilities had been hit.
The United States stepped into the conflict nine days later and attacked three nuclear facilities in Iran - at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan - in the early hours on June 22. Late on June 23, Tehran retaliated by delivering a missile strike on the Al Udeid airbase in Qatar, the largest US base in the Middle East.