US defence secretary Mark Esper has admitted he has not seen concrete evidence that slain Iranian general Qasem Soleimani was targeting four American embassies, as claimed by Donald Trump.
The US President last week said he had been privy to "specific information on an imminent threat" to US consulates, ahead of ordering the strike which killed Soleimani.
He went on to state it "probably would've been four embassies".
However, in an interview on Sunday, Mr Esper said he had not seen solid information pointing towards such a specific threat.
Asked by CBS about a specific piece of evidence, he said: "I didn't see one with regards to the four embassies."
He defended Mr Trump's comments by stating he "didn't cite a specific piece of evidence".
Mr Esper said he shared the US President's view that they "were going to go after our embassies". He said other members of the US security team shared that view.
Last week, Mr Trump said: "We had specific information on an imminent threat and that threat stream included attacks on US embassies. Period. Full stop."
The comments come amid rising tensions in the Middle East, as the US and Iran clash following the death of Soleimani.
The Iranian military leader was killed in a US-ordered strike in Baghdad earlier this month, which later prompted Iran to target an Iraqi base which is home to American and British. Political leaders have said nobody was injured in the retaliatory strike.
In the wake of this, Iran mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet, claiming to have believed it was a missile fired as part of disputes, killing 176 people on board.
It initially denied this, with protests taking place across the nation since the revelation.
Mr Trump has expressed support for the protesters and addressed the country's leaders in a tweet, saying "DO NOT KILL YOUR PROTESTERS".
