Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said Sunday he hopes President Trump’s statement that the U.S. will not tolerate any attacks on American personnel “gets through to the leaders in Tehran.”
He added, however, that he worries about Tehran’s “long history” of stepping up aggression.
“I fear if Iran doesn’t have firm set of boundaries drawn around its behavior, we’re going to see an attack on U.S. ship or a U.S. manned aircraft,” he said.
{mosads}Speaking to Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday,” Cotton reiterated his support for a retaliatory strike against Iran, this time following the downing of a U.S. drone. Cotton last Sunday called for strikes following an attack on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman that the U.S. blamed on Iran.
“I think retaliatory strikes were warranted when talking about foreign vessels on the high seas and they are warranted against an unmanned U.S. aircraft,” he said this week.
Cotton also said the U.S. could have “a different kind of relationship” with Iran if the nation turned away from its “campaign of terror throughout the region,” but U.S. officials should maintain a “healthy skepticism.”
“We should keep a maximum pressure campaign on them and give them the opportunity to act like a normal nation and seek relief in exchange for verifiable commitments,” he said.
President Trump on Friday said he ordered a retaliatory strike against Iran but called it off after he learned the number of expected casualties. While he called the shooting down of the unmanned U.S. Navy surveillance drone a “very big mistake,” he also indicated he was reluctant to escalate the situation because no Americans were killed.
The move came on the heels of increasing tensions between the U.S. and Iran that many have feared could lead to armed conflict. The president pulled out of the Obama-era nuclear deal that offered Tehran sanctions relief for limiting its nuclear program and the White has since imposed numerous sanctions.
Iran announced last week it would exceed the limit the deal placed on its stockpile of enriched uranium.