Former Secretary of State Antony Blinken pushed back Thursday on President Donald Trump’s claim that Blinken had endorsed the president’s attacks on Iran, saying Trump misrepresented remarks about the Obama administration’s earlier Iran policy.
Trump Claims Blinken Backed Iran Strikes
Speaking at a Republican fundraising dinner Wednesday night, Trump said, “I’ve heard that today Blinken made a statement that he should have done it. Thanks a lot Blinken, I appreciate it,” before adding, “But he came out with the statement that they should have done it, they made a mistake.”
But Blinken answered on X the next day, writing that Trump “cited me as supporting his attack on Iran and expressing regret we didn’t do it during the Biden Administration. Except I didn’t.”
Blinken Points Back To Obama-Era Diplomacy
Blinken then pointed followers to clips from a Harvard Kennedy School event, suggesting Trump had misunderstood. Blinken, who served as Barack Obama’s deputy secretary of state from 2015 to 2017, said at the event, “When the Obama administration came along, we looked very hard at this problem. And we decided that the best way to engage it was through the diplomatic agreement that we ultimately achieved.”
He was referring to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, which traded curbs on Iran’s nuclear activity for sanctions relief. Trump withdrew the United States from that accord in 2018, arguing it still allowed Iran eventually to move toward a nuclear breakout.
Blinken said the Obama team had considered military action but concluded at the time that strikes risked an Iranian response that the United States would then have to contain. In his X thread, he also argued that Americans can support deployed troops while still questioning the war’s aims, cost and durability, and he ended with a blunt conclusion that he would not have launched it.
Benzinga has reached out to Blinken and the White House for clarifications and comments on the exchange.
War’s Human Toll Continues To Rise
Meanwhile, the toll in the Middle East has mounted. Associated Press reporting says more than 1,500 people in Iran and nearly 1,100 in Lebanon have been killed, along with 13 U.S. service members. In an update released early Thursday, CENTCOM chief Adm. Brad Cooper said American forces had struck more than 10,000 targets in Iran.
Photo Courtesy: noamgalai from Shutterstock
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