Fox News host Tucker Carlson has reportedly been privately urging Trump against a war with Iran

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• Fox News host Tucker Carlson has been lobbying against military action against Iran in private conversations with President Donald Trump, according to a new report from The Daily Beast. 
• Carlson, who hosts "Tucker Carlson Tonight," has been critical of Trump’s foreign policy advisers on his show in recent weeks in relation to Iran.
• On Monday, the Fox News host expressed skepticism about Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s assertion that Iran is responsible for recent attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman.
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Fox News host Tucker Carlson has been privately pushing for President Donald Trump to avoid allowing tensions with Iran to esclate into an all-out war, The Daily Beast reported on Wednesday.

A senior administration official told The Beast that Carlson has been particularly critical of the more "hawkish members" of the Trump administration in his conversations with the president.

The White House declined to comment when contacted by INSIDER.

Carlson, who hosts "Tucker Carlson Tonight," has used his show in recent weeks to speak out against a military confrontation with Iran while criticizing the president’s advisers like National Security Adviser John Bolton — who in the past has expressed support for a military strike against Iran.

"More than anything in the world, national security adviser John Bolton would love to have a war with Iran," Carlson said on his show last month. "Mercifully, John Bolton does not control the military, President Trump does."

The Fox News host on Monday night compared Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s assertion that Iran carried out recent oil tanker attacks in the Gulf of Oman to comments made by former Secretary of State Colin Powell in the lead-up to the Iraq War. 

Read more: Trump administration dodges questions on calls for a UN probe of tanker attacks as it struggles to convince allies of Iran’s guilt

"Pompeo says, in fact the proof of Iranian involvement is ‘unmistakable.’ Of course, this is not the first time the Secretary of State expressed total confidence in the sinister intent of a Middle Eastern country," Carlson said at the time. "Colin Powell made a very similar case to the United Nations 16 years ago about Iraq and we’re still paying a price for that misplaced certainty."

Pompeo’s assertion that Iran is responsible for the tanker attacks in the Gulf of Oman has also been met with skepticism by some US allies. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has dodged questions on whether it would support calls for a UN-led probe into the incident.

Read more: Here’s what’s in the landmark nuclear deal that Iran is starting to walk away from amid tensions with Trump

Tensions between the US and Iran have reached historic heights in recent weeks as Washington and Tehran continue to spar over the 2015 nuclear deal and the Trump administration’s onslaught of economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

The US has increased its military presence in the region in response to the crisis, but both Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani have said they don’t want war. 

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See Also:

• Trump administration dodges questions on calls for a UN probe of tanker attacks as it struggles to convince allies of Iran’s guilt
• Elizabeth Warren says Trump ‘provoked’ the Iran crisis and is risking another ‘forever war’
• Trump used Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s words to defend himself. She responded by saying she’d call his ‘bluff’ on impeachment.

SEE ALSO: The oil tanker attacks could make a US-Iran military showdown inevitable, experts warn

Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (John Haltiwanger)