Vice President Mike Pence revealed that Iran is directing militias not to attack the United States any further, citing U.S. intelligence.
The vice president made the admission during an interview on Fox & Friends Thursday morning. Anchor Brian Kilmeade asked him how the U.S. would respond if one of the militias that has ties to Iran, many of which were led by former Iranian top Gen. Qassem Soleimani, were to continue to retaliate for the strike that killed Soleimani.
“We have made it very clear that we are prepared to respond militarily if militias move against us,” Pence stated. “The encouraging news is, number one, Qassem Soleimani was the principle contact and leader on Iran’s behalf with those militias. And number two, we are hearing some intelligence to suggest that Iran is sending a message to the militias not to move forward.”
He also noted that if the intelligence turns out to be incorrect, American forces are “ready for anything.”
Tensions between the U.S. and Iran escalated and deescalated over the last week after President Trump’s order to kill Soleimani following a series of Iranian attacks on American assets in Iraq, including the killing of an American defense contractor and the storming of the American Embassy in Baghdad.
Iran responded to the general’s death by attacking two U.S.-Iraqi air bases with more than a dozen ballistic missiles late Tuesday night; however; there were no casualties in Iran’s retaliatory strikes, and the president said the nation now “appears to be standing down.”
