‘I’m in no hurry’

President Donald Trump said yesterday the US was “cocked and loaded” to retaliate against Iran for downing an unmanned American surveillance drone but he canceled the strikes minutes before they were to be launched after being told 150 people could die.

Trump did not rule out a future strike but said in a TV interview that the likelihood of casualties from the Thursday night plan to attack three sites in Iran did not seem like the correct response to shooting down an unmanned drone earlier in the day in the Strait of Hormuz. “I didn’t think it was proportionate,” he said in an interview with NBC News’ Meet the Press.

Trump told NBC News that he never gave a final order to launch the strikes — planes were not yet in the air but would have been “pretty soon.”

He said military officials came to him about 30 minutes before the strikes were to be launched and asked him for his final approval. Before signing off, he said he asked how many Iranians would be killed and was told approximately 150. “I thought about it for a second and I said, ‘You know what? They shot down an unmanned drone, plane — whatever you want to call it — and here we are sitting with 150 dead people.’ “That would have taken place probably within a half an hour after I said go ahead. And I didn’t like it. I didn’t think it was proportionate.”

In his lengthy, morning tweet, Trump defended his stance on Iran amid criticism from Democrats who accuse him of having no strategy. He said his exit from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and the reimposition of sanctions on Iran have crippled its economy. “Now they are Bust!” “I am in no hurry,” he said. “Sanctions are biting and more added last night. Iran can NEVER have Nuclear Weapons, not against the US, and not against the WORLD!”