Trump: I didn’t call Iran strike back, I just stopped it for now

US President Donald Trump on Saturday night clarified that he had not called off a planned strike on Iran in retaliation for its shooting down an American drone.

“I never called the strike against Iran ‘BACK,’ as people are incorrectly reporting, I just stopped it from going forward at this time!” he tweeted.

On Thursday night, it was revealed that Trump had approved military strikes against Iran in retaliation for downing an American surveillance drone, but pulled back from launching them.

On Friday, the president tweeted that he was “cocked and loaded” to strike several targets in Iran but deemed the loss of life would be disproportionate to the downing of an unmanned US drone.

Earlier on Saturday, Trump announced that he would impose new sanctions on Iran on Monday.

“Iran cannot have Nuclear Weapons! Under the terrible Obama plan, they would have been on their way to Nuclear in a short number of years, and existing verification is not acceptable. We are putting major additional Sanctions on Iran on Monday. I look forward to the day that sanctions come off Iran, and they become a productive and prosperous nation again – The sooner the better!” he tweeted.