US Contemplates 'Calculated' Response to Drone Attack in Syria and Iraq

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during a press conference at the Pentagon. (AFP)
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during a press conference at the Pentagon. (AFP)
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US Contemplates 'Calculated' Response to Drone Attack in Syria and Iraq

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during a press conference at the Pentagon. (AFP)
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during a press conference at the Pentagon. (AFP)

As the administration of US President Joe Biden deliberates on how to address the recent drone attack on a US military base in Jordan without entangling in a prolonged conflict, political discourse in Washington revolves around the adopted policies concerning Iran.

Washington has accused pro-Iran factions of orchestrating the attacks, holding Iran accountable for supporting these factions.

This marks the first attack resulting in the death of American soldiers in the Middle East since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war in October.

US officials have confirmed to CBS News that plans have been approved for a series of strikes over a number of days against targets — including Iranian personnel and facilities — inside Iraq and Syria.

"We will have a multitiered response, and ... we have the ability to respond a number of times depending on what the situation is," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.

Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq - which claimed responsibility for the attack - announced Wednesday that it was suspending military operations against American forces.

Austin reacted to the group's statement during Thursday's news conference.

"We always listen to what people are saying, but we watch what they do, and ... actions are everything, so we'll see what happens in the future."

"This is a dangerous moment in the Middle East," Austin said. “We will continue to work to avoid a wider conflict in the region, but we will take all necessary actions to defend the United States.”

Austin said he didn't know whether Iran knew about the attack ahead of time, yet he called upon Tehran to quit supplying the Houthis in Yemen with weapons.

“We don't see an all-out conflict between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah.”

Weather will be a major factor in the timing of the strikes, the US officials told CBS News, as the US prefers to have better visibility of selected targets as a safeguard against inadvertently hitting civilians who might stray into the area at the last moment.

Gen. Robert Abrams, a retired combatant commander, said the US Central Command, which oversees forces in the region, will be trying to provide several military strike options to the president.

"Biden needs to send a message, but he also doesn't want to escalate the tensions ... That's the hard conversation that is happening right now between the Pentagon, CENTCOM, and the White House," Abrams told ABC News Live.

The US has assessed that Iran manufactured the drone that slammed into a US base in Jordan over the weekend, killing three American soldiers and wounding more than 40, four US officials told Reuters.

The attack in Jordan, and any US response, is likely to stoke fears of wider conflict in the Middle East.

Teams of Biden and Trump

The military and policy decisions leading up to last weekend’s violence are many. Trump’s ordered assassination of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani. Biden’s lifting of sanctions on Tehran. Trump’s withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal. Biden’s partial response to Iran-backed attacks on US troops, according to Politico newspaper.

Each of these actions emboldened Iran or staved off war — depending on whom you ask (the team of Biden or Trump).

Killing Soleimani didn’t stop attacks

Attacks didn’t stop after Soleimani was killed. Five days later, on Jan. 8, 15 missiles hit a US base in Iraq, injuring more than 100 Americans. US personnel and contractors were also killed in separate attacks in Iraq and Syria that spring and the conditions in Baghdad deteriorated so much that then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo threatened to shut the US Embassy in Baghdad.

Top national security officials who served under Trump, as well as congressional Republicans, accused Biden of failing to prevent the attack and argued that the strike would not have happened if Trump had been president.

They argue that Biden has not struck back forcefully enough to the more than 160 attacks by Iran-backed proxies on US troops in Iraq, Syria and now Jordan, since October — showing a weakness that emboldened Tehran to continue encouraging the drone and missile strikes.

“The biggest problem is a failure of deterrence. Iran and its proxies believe they can attack the United States with impunity, which has been the case for three years,” Robert O’Brien, Trump’s last national security adviser, said in an interview. “Our weakness is provocative.”

Biden spokesperson Andrew Bates accused the former Trump officials and congressional Republicans of attempting to “politicize” Sunday's attack. He also said they should “stop giving Iran a pass for helping Russia attack Ukraine,” a reference to Iran's shipment of drones and other weapons to Moscow for strikes on Kyiv.

“Attempts by far-right congressional Republicans and former Trump officials to politicize our national security are illogical and detrimental to our safety and security,” Bates said in a Tuesday statement to Politico.

Behnam Ben Taleblu of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies revealed that, for now, the US intends to target locations and warehouses of Iranian-backed militias outside Iran.

The objective is to deprive Iran of a pretext for direct retaliation. Concerns loom over the potential escalation of conflict and its impact on oil prices, he added.

Taleblu, in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, asserted that calls for retaliation against Iran may be futile, considering the US may lack the will to sustain a prolonged military campaign.

Trump - also - chose to use force against Iranian-backed militias when there were American losses, he noted.



Trump Pauses Tariffs on Most Nations for 90 Days, Raises Taxes on Chinese Imports

A crane lifts an imports container from the cargo ship Epaminondas while it is docked at the Port of Baltimore, Wednesday, April 9, 2025, in Baltimore. (AP)
A crane lifts an imports container from the cargo ship Epaminondas while it is docked at the Port of Baltimore, Wednesday, April 9, 2025, in Baltimore. (AP)
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Trump Pauses Tariffs on Most Nations for 90 Days, Raises Taxes on Chinese Imports

A crane lifts an imports container from the cargo ship Epaminondas while it is docked at the Port of Baltimore, Wednesday, April 9, 2025, in Baltimore. (AP)
A crane lifts an imports container from the cargo ship Epaminondas while it is docked at the Port of Baltimore, Wednesday, April 9, 2025, in Baltimore. (AP)

Facing a global market meltdown, President Donald Trump on Wednesday abruptly backed down on his tariffs on most nations for 90 days, but raised the tax rate on Chinese imports to 125%.

It was seemingly an attempt to narrow what had been an unprecedented trade war between the US and most of the world to a showdown between the US and China. The S&P 500 stock index jumped nearly 7% after the announcement, but the precise details of Trump's plans to ease tariffs on non-China trade partners were not immediately clear.

Trump posted on Truth Social that because "more than 75 Countries" had reached out to the US government for trade talks and have not retaliated in meaningful way "I have authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately."

The 10% tariff was the baseline rate for most nations that went into effect on Saturday. It's meaningfully lower than the 20% tariff that Trump had set for goods from the European Union, 24% on imports from Japan and 25% on products from South Korea. Still, 10% would represent an increase in the tariffs previously charged by the US government.

The announcement came after the global economy appeared to be in open rebellion against Trump's tariffs as they took effect Wednesday, a signal that the US president was not immune from market pressures.

Business executives were warning of a potential recession caused by his policies, some of the top US trading partners are retaliating with their own import taxes and the stock market is quivering after days of decline.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the walk back was part of some grand negotiating strategy by Trump.

"President Trump created maximum negotiating leverage for himself," she said, adding that the news media "clearly failed to see what President Trump is doing here. You tried to say that the rest of the world would be moved closer to China, when in fact, we’ve seen the opposite effect the entire world is calling the United States of America, not China, because they need our markets."

But market pressures had been building for weeks ahead of Trump's move.

Particularly worrisome was that US government debt had lost some of its luster with investors, who usually treat Treasury notes as a safe haven when there's economic turbulence. Government bond prices had been falling, pushing up the interest rate on the 10-year US Treasury note to 4.45%. That rate eased after Trump's reversal.

Gennadiy Goldberg, head of US rates strategy at TD Securities, said before the announcement that markets wanted to see a truce in the trade disputes.

"Markets more broadly, not just the Treasury market, are looking for signs that a trade de-escalation is coming," he said. "Absent any de-escalation, it’s going to be difficult for markets to stabilize."

John Canavan, lead analyst at the consultancy Oxford Economics, noted that while Trump said he changed course due to possible negotiations, he had previously indicated that the tariffs would stay in place.

"There have been very mixed messages on whether there would be negotiations," Canavan said. "Given what's been going on with the markets, he realized the safest thing to do is negotiate and put things on pause."

Presidents often receive undue credit or blame for the state of the US economy as their time in the White House is subject to financial and geopolitical forces beyond their direct control.

But by unilaterally imposing tariffs, Trump is exerting extraordinary influence over the flow of commerce, creating political risks and pulling the market in different directions based on his remarks and social media posts. There still appears to be 25% tariffs on autos, steel and aluminum, with more imports set to be tariffed in the weeks ahead.

On CNBC, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said the administration was being less strategic than it was during Trump's first term. His company had in January projected it would have its best financial year in history, only to scrap its expectations for 2025 due to the economic uncertainty.

"Trying to do it all at the same time has created chaos in terms of being able to make plans," he said, noting that demand for air travel has weakened.

Before Trump's reversal, economic forecasters say his second term has had a series of negative and cascading impacts that could put the country into a downturn.

"Simultaneous shocks to consumer sentiment, corporate confidence, trade, financial markets as well as to prices, new orders and the labor market will tip the economy into recession in the current quarter," said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at the consultancy RSM.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has previously said it could take months to strike deals with countries on tariff rates, and the administration has not been clear on whether the baseline 10% tariffs imposed on most countries will stay in place. But in an appearance on "Mornings with Maria," Bessent said the economy would "be back to firing on all cylinders" at a point in the "not too distant future."

He said there has been an "overwhelming" response by "the countries who want to come and sit at the table rather than escalate." Bessent mentioned Japan, South Korea, and India. "I will note that they are all around China. We have Vietnam coming today," he said.

What's not yet known is what Trump does with the rest of his tariff agenda. In a Tuesday night speech, he said taxes on imported drugs would happen soon.