The top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee on Sunday praised President Donald Trump for giving Iran every opportunity for peace — but that’s there a limit.
In an interview on ABC News’ “This Week,” Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, said Trump is walking a fine line with Tehran.
“The president is clearly trying to navigate a fine line to show that you cannot attack Americans and American military equipment without having a response,” he said. “At the same time, he's very conscious of not getting on an escalatory ladder that leads to a military conflict that neither side wants.”
Thornberry said Trump is to be praised for not escalating tensions.
“I think he's giving the Iranians every opportunity to back out of this cycle of increasing violence that they have embarked upon for the past few months,” he said, “giving them every opportunity to get out of that and go towards a more productive negotiating sort of path.”
“And you know, I think it's hard to criticize the president for giving them every opportunity. But there's obviously a limit to that.”
“And that's why I say if Iran goes back to mining tankers, the — the sorts of things they've been doing here lately, then we have a whole range of military and other responses which we can employ,” he said.
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