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Trump Grants Military Leaders Unprecedented Authority to Carry Out Strikes in the Middle East
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Trump's decision to grant military leaders the freedom to carry out strikes without White House approval marks a shift in U.S. military strategy in the Middle East
Politico revealed that U.S. President Donald Trump has granted military leaders in the Middle East wide-ranging authority to carry out airstrikes without direct approval from the White House, marking a significant shift in U.S. military policy.
According to the newspaper, Trump announced on Saturday that U.S. warplanes had carried out a new round of strikes against targets in Yemen, emphasizing through his platform Truth Social that these operations targeted "terrorist bases, their leaders, and missile defenses," in addition to "protecting U.S. ships, planes, and naval assets, and restoring freedom of navigation."
Politico noted that this escalation came after the White House lifted restrictions imposed by former President Joe Biden's administration on airstrikes against armed groups. Under this new policy, U.S. military leaders in the Middle East and Africa can now directly carry out attacks based on their own assessments, without the need for prior approval from the White House.
The newspaper cited an unnamed U.S. official as saying that these changes had led to a noticeable increase in U.S. airstrikes in recent weeks, particularly in Somalia against the al-Shabaab group and in Syria against leaders of the ISIS organization. The official confirmed that "more strikes will be carried out in the region whenever opportunities arise to target leaders of armed groups."
