Ex-US military aide warns Iran crisis could ‘spin out of control’

A former top US military adviser warned Sunday that tensions with Iran “could spin out of control,” after President Donald Trump’s last-minute cancellation of air strikes on the Islamic republic.

Washington and Tehran have traded accusations since Iran shot down a US spy drone last week, prompting a plan for retaliatory strikes that was shelved when Trump decided the resulting mass casualties would not be “proportionate.”

“My biggest concern is the president is running out of room, running out of options and while rhetoric goes back and forth on how close we came to hitting Iran just the other day, that this thing could spin out of control,” former chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mike Mullen tells ABC’s “This Week.”

“The last thing in the world we need right now is a war with Iran,” he says.

Former Joint Chiefs chairman Adm. Mike Mullen on Iran: "My biggest concern is the president is running out of room, running out of options, and while the rhetoric goes back and forth … that this thing could spin out of control" https://t.co/jWRB6H5Cmf pic.twitter.com/wuCf5wYXNh

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) June 23, 2019

Mullen, who served under George W. Bush and then under Barack Obama from 2007 to 2011, says politicians need to use diplomacy to prevent Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

“That’s our system here and I think the politicians need to figure out a way to achieve the objective, which is Iran without a nuclear weapon — and, from my perspective, without regime change, without going to war,” he says.

— AFP