John Kirby, the spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, expressed regret on Tuesday for making up the last-week assertion that Iraqi officials were informed prior to a sequence of well-coordinated attacks.
Kirby first asserted on Friday that national leaders were informed in advance of the bombing of sites associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) inside Iraqi borders.
After State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel verified that this was untrue and that Iraqi leaders were not notified until after the strikes, he was had to backtrack on this assertion.
BY UTILIZING THE WAR POWERS RESOLUTION AND AUTHORIZATIONS FROM 2001 AND 2002, BIDEN DEFENDS ORDER TO ATTACK IRAQ, SYRIA
Like every other nation in the area, Iraq realized that action would be taken in response to the deaths of American servicemen. There was no pre-notification on this particular response on Friday, Patel informed the media on Monday. “We informed the Iraqis immediately after the strikes occurred.”
The same day, Kirby addressed the uncertainty in a statement, claiming to be acting on “information that I had been provided at the time.”
US ‘NOT LOOKING FOR A WAR WITH IRAN,’ SAYS WHITE HOUSE, AFTER STRIKES INTENDED TO ‘PUT A END’ TO ATTACKS ON TROOPS
Kirby began a press conference on Tuesday by going into great detail regarding the untrue assertion.
“I’m sure many of you saw the statement that I issued yesterday correcting what I had said Friday night about pre-notification to Iraqi officials on Friday night before the strikes that we took on facilities related to the Iran-backed militia groups,” Kirby stated to the media. “I also regret any uncertainty this may have created and sincerely apologize for the error. It was predicated on information that either we possessed or that I was given during the initial hours following the strikes. As it happens, the information was false. And I do apologize for the mistake.”
