JUDY WOODRUFF: President Trump says that Iran
is standing down, after firing missiles at
U.S. troops in Iraq, but causing no casualties.
And, for now, at least, no more U.S. military
action is expected.
Foreign affairs correspondent Nick Schifrin
begins our coverage.
NICK SCHIFRIN: With every military service
chief standing at the ready, the commander
in chief today announced the U.S. would respond
to Iran's attacks without the military.
DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States:
As we continue to evaluate options in response
to Iranian aggression, the United States will
impose additional punishing economic sanctions
on the Iranian regime.
NICK SCHIFRIN: In one way, last night's attacks
were an escalation: ballistic missiles fired
from inside Iran at U.S. forces for the first
time in decades.
But senior U.S. officials tell "PBS NewsHour"
they believe Iran calibrated the strikes on
two bases in Iraq to avoid casualties.
And Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted
that Iran took and concluded proportionate
measures, suggesting Iran wanted to de-escalate.
DONALD TRUMP: Iran appears to be standing
down, which is a good thing for all parties
concerned and a very good thing for the world.
NICK SCHIFRIN: President Trump reiterated
his own decision to de-escalate by saying
he could work with Iran.
DONALD TRUMP: The destruction of ISIS is good
for Iran, and we should work together on this
and other shared priorities. We must all work
together toward making a deal with Iran that
makes the world a safer and more peaceful
place.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Iran called the missile strikes
a response to this U.S. drone strike that
killed Qasem Soleimani, the head of Iran's
network of regional proxies and a general
so popular, hundreds of thousands attended
his funeral.
His assassination was one of the U.S.' most
aggressive moves at Iran ever. But senior
U.S. officials told "PBS NewsHour" they interpreted
Iran's response as minimal retaliation. And,
today, President Trump emphasized a message
of restraint.
DONALD TRUMP: Our missiles are big, powerful,
accurate, lethal, and fast. Under construction
are many hypersonic missiles. The fact that
we have this great military and equipment,
however, does not mean we have to use it.
We do not want to use it. American strength,
both military and economic, is the best deterrent.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Senior Iranian officials warned,
the military wasn't their only tool, and called
their ambitions long-term.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei:
AYATOLLAH ALI KHAMENEI, Supreme Leader of
Iran (through translator): These military
actions are not enough. What is important
is that the corrupt presence of America in
this region comes to an end.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani:
HASSAN ROUHANI, Iranian President (through
translator): The revenge for that is to force
America out of this region. The real revenge
and the ultimate response by regional nations
is when America is expelled from this region
and its hand of aggression is cut off forever.
NICK SCHIFRIN: At any one point, there are
between 60,000 and 80,000 service members
across the Middle East and Afghanistan; 5,000
of them are in Iraq training Iraqi forces
and fighting ISIS.
Already, a majority of the Iraqi Parliament
urged the government to expel U.S. troops,
and Iraq's caretaker prime minister suggested
U.S. troops leave. It's unclear if or when
the Iraqi government will enforce that. But
on the streets of Baghdad today, popular opinion
is anti-U.S. and anti-Iran.
HAMED AL-SHAMARI, Protester (through translator):
We demand the Iranian government and the United
States provide material and moral compensation
to the Iraqi people for every missile that
falls and every martyr or wounded person.
NICK SCHIFRIN: On Capitol Hill, the administration's
top national security officials briefed Congress
behind closed doors. Democrats said the claim
Soleimani represented a new imminent threat
was unconvincing.
SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD): To the extent
that they provided facts, in my judgment,
they didn't support any claim of an imminent
threat.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Two Republicans skeptical of
the use of military force agreed, and promised
to support a Democratic effort to block President
Trump from waging war with Iran.
SEN. MIKE LEE (R-UT): Probably the worst briefing
I have seen, at least on a military issue,
in the nine years I have served in the United
States Senate.
NICK SCHIFRIN: But most Republicans argued
the president was justified.
SEN. JAMES RISCH (R-ID): It would have been
negligent, it would have reckless, and it
would have been an intentional disregard for
the safety of Americans for the president
not to act and not to take out Soleimani.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Despite that debate, today,
both President Trump and Iran decided now
was the time to de-escalate.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And for a deeper look now at
all angles of this story, I'm joined by Karim
Sadjadpour. He's an Iran expert at the Carnegie
Institute for International Peace. It's a
nonpartisan think tank in Washington. Foreign
affairs correspondent Nick Schifrin, and White
House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor joins
us from Pennsylvania Avenue.
Thank you all for being here. Nick, thank
you for being with us after that report.
So, to you first, Yamiche.
Walk us through the president's thinking here.
You have these missile strikes by Iran last
night on U.S. interests, and then you have
the president today talking peace.
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: The president decided to
pursue de-escalation and talk about peace,
instead of military action against Iran, after
hours and hours of careful thinking through
this with his top national security advisers.
I was told that the president gathered for
hours in the Situation Room, which is a secure
room in the White House, where a lot of these
issues are often discussed. And he had a range
of options, including military action. And
he decided to do de-escalation because he
-- quote -- "felt relieved," I was told by
a White House aide. He was relieved that there
were no Americans killed by the strikes last
night, and he was relieved that American equipment
was able to detect those missiles early on,
and was able to -- and people were able to
go and cover and be safe.
And, as a result, President Trump decided
to say, you know what, what I want to do is
sanctions. And the White House is looking
at sanctions as a way to financially and economically
respond to Iran.
There are some Democratic lawmakers who told
me today that they see that still as retaliation
on the United States' part, but the White
House and President Trump are essentially
saying, this is what we wanted to do, because
we wanted to pursue peace and we didn't want
this to get any worse and we didn't want this
to escalate any further.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And so, Nick, you have been
talking to folks in the national security,
the intelligence community.
How -- what's their assessment of these strikes?
NICK SCHIFRIN: Yes, they're echoing what Yamiche
is saying, that the president gave a clear
message of de-escalation.
And when you talk to senior U.S. officials
and the intelligence community there is an
assessment in Washington today that Iran did
not want any casualties. They calibrated,
as we reported, this strike so that there
were no casualties.
And the secretary of defense, Mark Esper,
talked about the type of damage that has been
on these bases. And there are now actually
some satellite photos that we have about this
damage, and it shows what happened before
the strike on the left and after the strike.
He says that it actually wasn't that significant
damage. The targets were a taxiway, a helicopter,
tents, parking lot. The idea was that they
did not target these bases in a way that would
kill a lot of U.S. troops, although, Judy,
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley just
talked to reporters at the Pentagon.
He said that there was an intent for structural
damage and intent to kill, that the reason
nobody died wasn't Iran's choice, but what
Yamiche was talking about, those early warning
systems and the steps they took to try and
avoid casualties.
But that's the chairman disagreeing a little
bit with other senior administration officials.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So interesting.
Now, Karim, what are you -- what's your understanding
now of the Iranian leaders, how they see all
of this after the president's remarks this
morning?
KARIM SADJADPOUR, Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace: Well, I think Iranian leaders view
Donald Trump with a mix of mistrust, contempt
and fear, fear at his impulsiveness and erraticness.
And I think last night was just an opening
salvo for Iran. Last night was really maximum
drama, minimum impact. I don't think they're
going to necessarily continue in that vein.
And I think Iran is highly motivated to try
to make Donald Trump a one-term president,
just as they feel they made Jimmy Carter a
one-term president with the 1979 hostage crisis.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, we're being told that -- and
we heard from the president that Iran appears
to be standing down. You're saying what?
KARIM SADJADPOUR: I think that this is going
to be a sustained response from Iran over
the course of many months.
One of the talking points you're now hearing
from all Iranian officials is, they want all
American troops out of the Middle East. I
can imagine a scenario whereby, six months
from now, when Americans are no longer paying
attention, Iran detains a group of American
sailors in the Persian Gulf.
In the past, they have always released these
sailors after a couple days, but they say,
we will only release them if America releases
all troops from -- removes all troops from
the region.
That's going to put Donald Trump in an incredible
bind just ahead of the general election. And
I think, given how unprecedented the attack
was on Qasem Soleimani, we have to think outside
the box about Iranian responses.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, you're saying, we may be
too quick to believe that this is -- that
the hostilities are completely over.
KARIM SADJADPOUR: I think we're just beginning
this. It has not concluded.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And, finally, back to you,
Yamiche.
Obviously, we're in the middle of an election
season, a presidential election season, which
Karim just referenced. What is the sense from
the folks you're talking to about how any
of this is playing out politically?
YAMICHE ALCINDOR: Well, the president's actions
in Iran and his speech today have really become
a political fault line here in Washington
and on the campaign trail.
So, first, you have the president, through
his reelection bid, through the Trump campaign,
now running ads saying that he should be reelected
because he killed that Iranian general. He's
running ads that hopefully we're showing people
now on Facebook and on social media making
the case that he should be reelected as commander
in chief because of that.
I want to also add to the fact that the president
did make a misleading statement today about
a Democrat. He made the case that Iran was
able to fund this strike that they made last
night through money that was given to them
by the previous administration, the Obama
administration.
That's not entirely accurate. Judy, instead,
actually, the Iran nuclear deal was about
unfreezing some assets that Iran already had.
This was not just Barack Obama writing a check
to Iran, even though there was some money
given to that.
The other thing to note is that Democrats
and Republicans still seem very split along
party lines about the way that they're seeing
the killing of this general. You have Democrats
largely skeptical, telling me and White House
producer Meredith Lee that they really aren't
buying the administration's -- their assessment
of whether or not there was an immediate threat.
And, largely, Republicans are backing the
president on this, except for, as Nick noted,
Mike Lee, who said, not only that this was
one of the worst briefings that he had ever
attended by top U.S. national security officials,
but he also said that he was insulted, because,
at one point during the briefing, national
security officials said that lawmakers should
not be debating whether or not the president
should be doing more military intervention.
And he said that he took that as an insult,
because, essentially, senators should be able
to talk about what the president's going to
be doing militarily.
So, you have even members of the president's
own party questioning whether or not they're
being seen as an equal branch of government.
But, largely, all of this is still surrounded
by politics. So we're going to have to continue
to closely watch how this plays out in Washington
and on the campaign trail.
JUDY WOODRUFF: That's right. And we saw a
little of Senator Lee with those comments
just a few minutes ago.
All right, Yamiche Alcindor at the White House,
Nick Schifrin here in the studio with me,
along with Karim Sadjadpour.
Thank you very much.
