Pompeo and his key aide versus Bolton and his main adviser over Iran threat

My TIMES story that got chopped a lot for Saturday's paper: A SERIOUS CLASH between two of President Trump’s closest advisers is at the heart of the dangerous confrontation with Iran, a former senior US defence official has told The Times. Mr Trump had “no game plan” to go to war with Iran, the former official said. The president made this clear when he met with top Pentagon officials on Thursday. However, the former senior official with close links to the administration revealed there was a breakdown between Mike Pompeo, secretary of state, backed by Brian Hook, his chief Iran expert, and John Bolton, national security adviser, supported by Richard Goldberg, a key aide and Iran specialist. “There are serious divisions within the administration between Pompeo/Hook who believe that they can pressure Iran into negotiating (and they think Trump agrees), and Bolton/Goldberg who believe that the regime is near cracking and can potentially be brought down,” the former senior official said. “Both sides agree on the need to increase the economic pressures on the regime but disagree on the likely endgame,” he said. “But I don’t think that either side is actively pushing for military action against Iran, unless the Iranians are foolish enough to take a shot at US forces in which case all bets are off,” he said. Brian Hook is US special representative for Iran and a senior policy adviser to Mr Pompeo. Richard Goldberg was the lead congressional staff negotiator for sanctions on Iran prior to the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran and is a recognised hawk on Iran. Despite persistent reports that Mr Bolton’s anti-Iran stance is winning the argument in the White House, an influential figure in Washington told The Times that Mr Trump was “the real driver” behind policy on Iran, not his national security adviser. “It’s being claimed that Bolton is driving policy on Iran but that’s unfair, and he would argue that that’s unfair because although he has always been a hawk on Iran he is now the national security adviser, so he’s not driving the policy on Iran, the president is,” General Jack Keane, former top US army commander, said. General Keane who was on Mr Trump’s original shortlist to become defence secretary in 2016 and remains close to the president, said there was “no hype” going on about the intelligence on Iranian preparations for attacking US troops in the Middle East. He said the intelligence was real. “It was General [Kenneth] McKenzie, commander of Central Command, not the White House, who asked for the carrier, bombers and Patriot missiles to be returned to the Middle East based on that intelligence,” General Keane said. He was backed up by US intelligence sources who told The Times:”There is no daylight between us and the administration, or indeed with our allies, including Britain, over the scale of the threat from Iran.” Despite claims of confusion in Washington over whether the intelligence