Department of War Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson told the Daily Caller that the administration is preparing multiple military options as tensions with Iran continue to escalate.
President Donald Trump drew a firm red line during his Tuesday State of the Union address, declaring that Iran must commit to not building a nuclear weapon.
Wilson said the Department of War is presenting the president with several contingency plans and is already repositioning military assets toward Iran to demonstrate resolve.
“At the Department of War, our job is to plan. We have contingency plans for every operation and every scenario. If the president says go, we need to be ready to go with whatever option he chooses. So we are presenting options to the president,” Wilson told the Caller.
“This is a president who seeks peace and who always pursues diplomacy first, but it is our job to make sure that we’re prepared should he choose a different course of action, and we have to have the assets in place to do it,” she added.
The White House is currently attempting to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran. In comments to Reuters, the White House warned that if no agreement is reached, officials “will have to do something very tough like last time,” referring to the June strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
“We’ve got a lot of assets over there, a lot of aircraft over there, and we’re going to make sure that the Iranian people know we mean business, and the regime and the mullahs there particularly, know we mean business,” Wilson said. “They remember Midnight Hammer and the success of that operation. They also, like the rest of the world and our enemies, watched the Maduro raid.”
“They see what the United States military — and only the United States military — is capable of doing,” she continued. “It would be very wise for them to make a deal with this president. And I would also add that the president has been clear, whether on the campaign trail or throughout his entire presidency, that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. That is a red line, and we at the Department of War are in full support of that initiative.”
The Daily Caller interviewed Wilson at the White House media row following the president’s State of the Union address. Her full comments on Iran, the Department of War’s contract with Anthropic, and the secretary’s plans for the campaign trail can be viewed in the accompanying video.
