FOREIGN POLICY/IRAN/NATIONAL SECURITY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Four days after President Trump’s stern warning via Twitter to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, national security adviser John Bolton is scheduled to hold a meeting Thursday [7-26-18] of Pentagon and other top officials on the administration’s emerging strategy on Iran. The meeting, which follows Mr. Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear accord and reimpose tough economic sanctions on Tehran, comes as key elements of the administration’s Iran policy remain unclear. Among them: what the U.S. might give in return for a new agreement with Tehran, and whether Washington is prepared to use military force along with economic pressure to roll back Iran’s assertive posture in the Middle East. The discussions are to take place among members of the administration’s Principals Committee, a Cabinet-level panel on national security issues that Mr. Bolton chairs and whose members include Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, among other senior officials. The White House hasn’t announced the meeting, but administration officials said it would be just the third time that Mr. Bolton has convened the group since assuming his post in April.”
-Michael R. Gordon, Nancy A. Youssef and Peter Nicholas, “After Trump’s Threat to Iran, White House Convenes a Policy Meeting,” The Wall Street Journal, July 26, 2018 5:32 am