BAGHDAD (AP) – President Donald Trump says the killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani was not undertaken in an effort to begin a conflict with Iran.
Speaking to reporters in Florida for the first time since the drone strike on Soleimani, Trump says: “We took action last night to stop a war. We did not take action to start a war.” Trump also says he does not seek regime change in Iran, but the nation’s use of “proxy fighters to destabilize its neighbors must end and it must end now.”
Trump adds that targets of possible retaliation have been identified “and I am ready and prepared to take whatever action is necessary.”
