国防部长马克·埃斯珀周日表示，他“没有看到”伊朗军事指挥官卡西姆·苏莱曼尼计划袭击美国驻中东大使馆的具体证据，但他认为“很可能”这是苏莱曼尼的计划。
斯珀的话，在采访中《哥伦比亚广播公司新闻》面向国家此前，唐纳德·特朗普总统周五告诉福克斯新闻节目主持人劳拉·英格拉哈姆，他可以“透露”他认为“很可能是四个大使馆”通过索莱曼尼的计划遭到袭击。国防部长没有直接证实特朗普的言论，指出他没有看到证实总统说法的证据。
“他[特朗普]没有引用具体的证据，”斯珀辩称。“他说的话，他可能，他相信——”国防部长在被打断之前说道面向国家主持人玛格丽特·布伦南
“你是说没有一项[特有的证据]？”布伦南问道。
“关于四个大使馆，我没有看到一个。我要说的是，我同意总统的观点，那就是，我的期望是，他们可能会袭击我们的大使馆，”他回答说。
与此相关，在面试随着福克斯周日新闻特朗普的国家安全顾问罗伯特·奥布赖恩(Robert O'Brien)拒绝表示，他知道伊朗计划袭击美国大使馆的具体证据。
“我们知道美国设施受到威胁，”奥布赖恩坚持说。“现在不管他们是基地还是大使馆，你知道，在袭击发生之前，[一直很难知道。”
总统已经面临大量批评民主党议员和一些著名的共和党人对他决定下令无人机袭击表示感谢，此次袭击杀死了1月3日抵达伊拉克后领导伊朗精英圣城军的索莱曼尼。批评者质疑干掉一名主权政府官员的法律依据，并警告称，总统的行为可能会导致美国与伊斯兰共和国的战争更加接近。
尽管特朗普和他的政府一再坚称，美国在中东的利益受到攻击的威胁“迫在眉睫”，但他们在公开场合都认同许多人认为的相互矛盾的言论。此外，民主党和共和党议员表示，在向国会提交的简报中提供的证据没有提供任何更清晰的情报细节，而这些情报被用来为罢工辩护纽约时报还援引匿名政府官员的话说，所使用的证据“非常薄”
美国国务卿麦克·庞贝因声称威胁“迫在眉睫”而招致大量批评，这种评估可能是用来证明罢工是防御性的。然而，在同一个评论中，他断言，政府不知道“哪里”或“什么时候”会发生攻击。
9月30日，唐纳德·特朗普总统和国防部长马克·埃斯珀在弗吉尼亚州迈尔-亨德森联合基地大厅出席了纪念第二十任参谋长联席会议主席的武装部队欢迎仪式
“庞贝:进攻迫在眉睫，但是‘我们不知道何时何地’好吧，如果你不知道何时何地，那就不是“迫在眉睫”，国会女议员兼民主党总统候选人图西·加巴德，一位伊拉克战争的老兵，周日在推特上批评了国务卿的言论。
犹他州共和党参议员李政颖遭到强烈批评政府在上周向国会做了一次关于苏莱曼尼罢工的机密简报后。他辩称，政府没有提供任何重大证据证明威胁迫在眉睫。
“当我们问他们，‘那次袭击的性质是什么？何时何地会发生这种情况？“是谁实施的？”，他们拒绝回答这个问题。李说:“如果我们不在保密环境中，他们会像以前一样推迟，说‘我们不能谈论这件事’。
TRUMP'S DEFENSE SECRETARY SAYS IRAN'S SOLEIMANI WAS 'PROBABLY' PLANNING U.S. EMBASSY ATTACKS, BUT HE 'DIDN'T SEE' SPECIFIC EVIDENCE
Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said on Sunday that he "didn't see" specific evidence that Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani was planning attacks on U.S. embassies in the Middle East, but he believed "probably" that was Soleimani's plan.
Esper's remarks, during an interview with CBS News' Face the Nation, came after President Donald Trump told Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Friday that he could "reveal" that he believed "it probably would've been four embassies" that were attacked through Soleimani's planning. The defense secretary did not directly corroborate Trump's remarks, noting that he had not seen evidence confirming the president's assertion.
"He [Trump] didn't cite a specific piece of evidence," Esper argued. "What he said, he probably, he believed–" the defense secretary said, before being interrupted by Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan
"Are you saying there wasn't one [specific piece of evidence]?" Brennan asked.
"I didn't see one with regard to four embassies. What I'm saying is I share the president's view that probably, my expectation was they were going to go after our embassies," he responded.
Relatedly, in an interview with Fox News Sunday, Trump's national security adviser Robert O'Brien declined to say that he knew of specific evidence that Iran was planning attacks against U.S. embassies.
"We knew there were threats to American facilities," O'Brien insisted. "Now whether they were bases, embassies, you know, it's always hard [to know] until the attack happens."
The president has faced substantial criticism from Democratic lawmakers, as well as some prominent Republicans, for his decision to order a drone strike that killed Soleimani, who led Iran's elite Quds Force, on January 3 after he arrived in Iraq. Critics have questioned the legal justification for taking out an official of a sovereign government and warned that the president's actions could have led the U.S. closer to war with the Islamic Republic.
While Trump and his administration have repeatedly insisted that the threat of an attack on American interests in the Middle East was "imminent," they have shared what many view to be conflicting statements publicly. Additionally, Democratic and Republican lawmakers have said that the evidence presented in a briefing to Congress did not provide any clearer details about the intelligence that was used to justify the strike, while The New York Times also cited anonymous government officials saying that the evidence used was "razor thin."
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has drawn substantial criticism for asserting that the threat was "imminent," an assessment that could be used to justify the strike as defensive. However, in the same remarks he asserted that the administration did not know "where" or "when" exactly the attacks would occur.
President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper attend the Armed Forces Welcome Ceremony in honor of the Twentieth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on September 30 at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Virginia
"Pompeo: The attack was imminent, but 'we didn't know when and we didn't know where.' Well, if you don't know when and if you don't know where, that is not 'imminent,'" Congresswoman and Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, a veteran of the Iraq War, tweeted on Sunday, criticizing the secretary of state's remarks.
Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah strongly criticized the administration following a classified briefing to Congress about the Soleimani strike last week. He argued that the administration had not provided any significant evidence that the threat was imminent.
"When we would ask them, 'What was the nature of that attack? When and where would that have been occurred? By whom would it have been carried out?', they refused to answer the question. And they deferred the same way they would if we weren't in a classified environment, saying, 'We can't talk about that,'" Lee said.
