MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Trump pulls back from a Friday retaliation attack on Iran for the downing of a US drone

Officials said the president had initially approved attacks on a handful of Iranian targets, like radar and missile batteries

United States President Donald Trump approved military strikes against Iran in retaliation for downing a US surveillance drone but pulled back from launching them on Thursday night after a day of escalating tensions.

As late as 7 pm Thursday military and diplomatic officials were expecting a strike, after intense discussions and debate at the White House among the president's top national security officials and congressional leaders, according to multiple senior administration officials involved in or briefed on the deliberations.

Officials said the president had initially approved attacks on a handful of Iranian targets, like radar and missile batteries. But the action was abruptly called off for the evening.

It was not clear whether Mr Trump simply changed his mind or whether the administration altered course because of logistics or strategy.

It was also not clear whether the attacks might still go forward. The White House declined to comment, as did Pentagon officials.

The retaliation plan was intended as a response to the shooting down of the unmanned, US$130 million surveillance drone, which was struck Thursday morning by an Iranian surface-to-air missile, according to a senior administration official.

The strike was set to take place just before dawn Friday in Iran to minimize risk to the Iranian military or to civilians. But military officials received word a short time later that the strike was off, at least temporarily.

Senior administration officials said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, national security adviser John Bolton and CIA Director Gina Haspel had favored a military response. But top Pentagon officials cautioned that such an action could result in a spiraling escalation with risks for US forces in the region.

Congressional leaders were briefed by administration officials in the Situation Room.

On Thursday, Mr Trump insisted that the United States' unmanned surveillance aircraft was flying over international waters when it was taken down by an Iranian missile.

“This drone was in international waters, clearly,” the president told reporters Thursday afternoon.

Iran's government insisted that the drone had strayed into Iranian airspace, releasing GPS coordinates that put the drone 8 miles off the country's coast - inside the 12 nautical miles from the shore that Iran claims as its territorial waters.

Mr Majid Takht-Ravanchi, Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, said Teheran “does not seek war” but “is determined to vigorously defend its land, sea and air.”