Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani was planning to take out four embassies, including the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, when the decision was made to take him out, President Donald Trump said in an interview recorded Friday.
"We will tell you that it was probably going to be the embassy in Baghdad," Trump told Fox News' Laura Ingraham during their interview, which will air in full Friday night at 10 p.m. ET.
He also told Ingraham "I don't think so," after she asked him if the American people have the right to know what was specifically targeted without revealing methods and sources."
Moments later, she asked Trump if it would help his case to disclose if there were large-scale attacks planned for other embassies, with the president responding "I can reveal that I believe it would have been four embassies."
He did not say which embassies were being threatened.
The Baghdad embassy came under attack on New Year's Eve when demonstrators stormed the compound after U.S. airstrikes were carried out against Iran-backed militias following the death of an American contractor.
Trump on Thursday told reporters Soleimani was killed because “they were looking to blow up our embassy," but the threat to other embassies was not mentioned. The administration says the airstrike that killed the Iranian top general was ordered because of an "imminent threat" on U.S. interests and troops.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, earlier on Friday, also said the threat warnings had included "attacks on U.S. embassies," and that the action against Soleimani was deemed imminent because the attacks were "going to happen."
Ingraham also asked Trump about whether the backlash to the general's killings could lead to U.S. troops leaving Iraq, and he responded that he is "okay with it."
However, he dismissed calls from Iraqi officials to begin planning for that to happen, telling Ingraham "that's what they (the Iraqis) say publicly. They don't say that privately."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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