Iran vows to strongly respond to any US attack after Biden’s warning
Iran vowed to respond “decisively” to any attack on its interests after US President Joe Biden said he has decided on how to retaliate against a weekend strike in Jordan that killed three American soldiers.
The warning from Iran’s UN envoy Amir Saeid Iravani comes after an announcement by Tehran-backed Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah that it is suspending attacks against US troops.
However, Houthi rebels in Yemen have continued to launch strikes against commercial shipping and naval ships in the Red Sea.
On Tuesday, US Navy guided missile destroyer the USS Gravely said it shot down a cruise missile fired towards the Red Sea.
The Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack yesterday.
The Iran-backed group, which like Kataib Hezbollah says it is acting in support of Palestinians in the Israel-Gaza war, has an arsenal of ballistic and cruise missiles that the US and UN say are supplied by Tehran.
Mr Iravani’s statement came hours after Mr Biden said he has decided on how to retaliate against a weekend strike in Jordan, for which the US accused Iran-backed groups.
Mr Biden also blamed Iran for supplying weapons used. “I do hold [Tehran] responsible, in the sense that they’re supplying the weapons to the people who did it,” Mr Biden said.
“I don’t think we need a wider war in the Middle East. “That’s not what I’m looking for.”
After the attack, which killed three soldiers and wounded 40 near Tower 22, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said that Mr Biden would not tolerate attacks on American forces.
The Islamic Republic News Agency said that Mr Iravani warned that “the Islamic Republic would decisively respond to any attack on the country, its interests and nationals under any pretexts”.
The Iranian envoy also denied any exchange of messages between his country and the US over the past two days.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps chief Hossein Salami also responded to the warning from Washington.
“We hear threats coming from American officials, we tell them that they have already tested us and we now know one another,” Mr Salami said. “No threat will be left unanswered,” he added.
In January 2020, the IRGC attacked Ain Al Asad airbase in Iraq, where American troops are stationed, after Maj Gen Qassem Suleimani, commander of its elite Quds Force, was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad.
Shortly after Mr Biden’s statement, Iraqi Shiite militia Kataib Hezbollah, which has been the main focus of blame for the attack, announced the suspension of all military operations against US troops.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani is under intense domestic political pressure to force US-led coalition forces to leave Iraq, a decade after their arrival to help fight ISIS. Foreign forces had been in the country during the 2003 to 2011 Iraq War.
Mr Al Sudani’s critics say US strikes in Iraq are a breach of Iraqi sovereignty, so more US action could undermine him.
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war, clashes between US forces and the Iran-backed militias have intensified.
Kataib Hezbollah and other militant groups in Iraq and Syria have carried out numerous attacks on US personnel in the Middle East since October 7, in response to Washington’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza.
The US has imposed sanctions on Kataib Hezbollah for supporting the Quds Force, which arms and trains groups in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
Pentagon spokesman Maj Gen Patrick Ryder said there had been three other Iranlinked strikes in Iraq and Syria since Sunday’s attack in Jordan, and more than 160 in recent months.
Jordan has a defence pact with the US and has several thousand troops stationed in the country. The US has played a major role in fortifying Jordan’s border with Syria, where the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and other militias supported by Iran operate.
We hear threats coming from American officials, we tell them that they have tested us and we know one another HOSSEIN SALAMI
IRGC chief