Joe Biden convened the US National Security Council in the Situation Room this morning "to discuss the latest developments regarding the attack on American soldiers in Jordan".
White House sources reported this to CNN.
Participants included National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, Chief of Staff Jeff Zients.
The United States will respond consequentially to the attack in Jordan, said White House National Security Advisor John Kirby.
Joe Biden will "respond" to the attack "in a consequential manner, but we are not looking for a war with Iran. We are not looking for a broad conflict in the Middle East," Kirby said.
Three American soldiers died in a nighttime drone attack on a US position in north-eastern Jordan, near the border with Syria
, while 34 others were injured.
The Islamic Resistance group in Iraq (coalition of pro-Iranian Shiite militias) claimed responsibility for the attack.
Al Jazeera reports it.
Iran had denied being involved.
"These accusations - said the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Kanaani, quoted by the Irna agency - are made with a political objective aimed at overturning the reality of the region".
It is also the first attack since the start of the war in Gaza on US troops in Jordan, a key ally country in the Middle East (with a crucial role also in Jerusalem for its supervision of the holy sites), where around 3,000 American troops are stationed.
There is therefore the risk of an escalation and widening of the conflict, after the repeated attacks by pro-Iranian militias against US troops in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, to which the Pentagon has responded blow for blow.
In particular in the Red Sea, where Houthi attacks against commercial ships, not only American ones, continue.
The raid embarrasses Biden during negotiations with Doha to unblock Iranian funds (6 billion dollars) in two Qatari banks after the release of some American hostages.
And it increases his electoral difficulties on the war front: over 1,000 African-American pastors representing hundreds of thousands of faithful nationwide have mobilized to ask him for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Warning him that otherwise he risks losing that crucial African-American vote that he is trying to win back these days in South Carolina, the first stop on February 3 of the Dem primaries.
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