While the entire Middle East is burning, the United States wanted to remind Tehran that they did not intend to let Israel down. Washington in fact warned Iran on Tuesday against the “consequences” of its attack against the Jewish state.
“The United States fully, fully, fully supports Israel,” Joe Biden said, adding that discussions were “ongoing” with Israel on how to respond.
A rain of missiles
As his national security adviser had already said a little earlier, the American president judged that Iran’s attack on Israel had proven “ineffective” and had been “defeated” by the forces Israelis, supported by the United States. “This is totally unacceptable and the whole world must condemn it,” said American Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Iran fired around 180 missiles at Israel on Tuesday in response, according to Tehran, to the assassination of the leaders of Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas, the second attack of its kind in six months. It comes as the Middle East finds itself plunged into an explosive situation, and calls for a ceasefire in Lebanon and Gaza remain unheeded.
A Pentagon spokesman, Pat Ryder, said Iran had fired “about twice as many missiles” as in its previous attack in April. The United States further indicated that it was not aware of any “deaths in Israel” but was seeking information on the death of a Palestinian civilian in the occupied West Bank. For National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, “it’s clear that this is a significant escalation by Iran, a significant event, and it’s equally important that we were in able to intervene with Israel.
Direct aid in April against an Iranian attack
Joe Biden had earlier ordered the American army to “help Israel defend itself” and to “shoot down the missiles” targeting its ally. The outgoing president and his vice-president Kamala Harris, candidate in the November 5 election, both followed the Iranian shots from the White House situation room.
The United States had already helped Israel on April 13 to intercept Iranian missiles, fired in response to a deadly strike attributed to Israel on the Iranian consulate in Damascus.