Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff (General Milley) denies ever recommending an attack against Iran to Trump
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Gen. Mark Milley told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria in an interview Wednesday that he never recommended a US military attack on Iran during the Trump administration, pushing back on claims made by former President Donald Trump and his White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.
“I can assure you that not one time have I ever recommended to attack Iran,” Milley said.
“But I can assure you that, you know,
a military attack on Iran is a very, very serious undertaking. We have capabilities. We have plans – that’s not particularly unusual – to comment on that. But I am not going to go further and discuss any of the details.”
In his book, “The Chief’s Chief,” Meadows references the meeting and the Iran document, claiming Milley urged Trump to attack Iran more than once during Trump’s presidency, but that Trump would not do so.
“The president recalls a four-page report typed up by Mark Milley himself,” Meadows writes. “It contained the general’s own plan to attack Iran, deploying massive numbers of troops, something he urged President Trump to do more than once during his presidency. President Trump denied those requests every time.”
Milley told Zakaria he did not know what Meadows had written but reiterated he had never recommended an attack on Iran.
“
I can tell you with certainty that this chairman never recommended a wholesale attack on Iran,” Milley said. “And to do that, I think would require a significant degree of risk that we may or may not want to take given the circumstances, but that that part of it didn’t happen. And I’m not sure I don’t know the exact quotes that Mr. Meadows said, but I can assure you I know what I’ve done and it’s
not to recommend an attack on Iran.”