By Jon Gambrell -
The Associated Press
Iran threatened on Wednesday to “respond forcefully” to any US attack against the Islamic Republic after Joe Biden linked the country to the deaths of three US soldiers at a military base in Jordan.
The United States has indicated that it is preparing strikes in the Middle East to respond to Sunday's drone incident, which also left at least 40 soldiers injured at Tower 22, a secret base in northeast Jordan that has been crucial to the American presence in the region. neighboring Syria.
However, there are concerns that any additional US strike could further inflame tempers
in a region already agitated by Israel's war against Hamas
in the Gaza Strip and attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels on shipping in the Red Sea.
Planet Labs PBC satellite photograph showing the military base known as Tower 22 in northeastern Jordan on Monday, January 29, 2024.Planet Labs PBC/AP
A U.S. Navy destroyer in the Red Sea shot down an anti-ship missile launched by Houthi rebels Tuesday night, the latest attack on U.S. forces patrolling the crucial sea route, according to officials.
The Iranian warnings were first issued by Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, who held a news conference Tuesday night for Iranian reporters, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
“The Islamic Republic will respond decisively to any attack against the country, its interests and its citizens under any pretext,” Iravani explained, as published by IRNA.
The diplomat described any possible Iranian retaliation as
a “strong response” but did not offer further details.
The Iranian mission to the UN did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment or clarification on Iravani's words.
Iravani also denied that Iran and the United States have communicated in recent days, neither through intermediaries nor directly.
The pan-Arab satellite television station Al Jazeera, which is funded and based in Qatar, previously reported that such communication had taken place.
Qatar usually acts as an intermediary between the two nations.
“No such messages have been exchanged,” Iravani said.
But the Iranian government
has taken note of US threats
of retaliation for the attack on the base in Jordan.
“Sometimes our enemies raise the threat and today we heard some in the words of American officials,” Gen. Hossein Salami, a Revolutionary Guard commander who answers only to the supreme leader, the Ayatollah, said at an event Wednesday. Ali Khamenei.
“We tell them that they have already tried us and we know each other.
We do not leave any threat unanswered.”
[The keys to the attack that killed 3 US soldiers in Jordan for which Biden promised retaliation]
“We do not seek war, but we are not afraid of war,” he added, according to IRNA.
A general in charge of Iranian air defenses said Saturday that they are in their “maximum defensive readiness.”
This also worries commercial aviation that crosses Iran.
After a US drone killed a prominent general in 2020, Iranian air defenses mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane, killing all 176 people on board.
Separately, attacks by Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels continue in the Red Sea.
Their last target was an American warship.
The missile launched Tuesday night targeted the USS Gravely, an Arleigh Burke-class missile destroyer, the US military's Central Command said in a statement.
“No injuries were reported and no injuries were reported,” the note added.
A Houthi military spokesman, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement Wednesday morning, calling the incident “a victory against the oppression of the Palestinian people and a response to the British-American aggression against our country".
Saree claimed that the Houthis fired “several” missiles, something the US Navy did not acknowledge.
The Houthis' claims have proven exaggerated in the past and their missiles sometimes crash into the ground and miss their targets.
The Houthis said Monday, without providing evidence, that they had attacked the USS Lewis B. Puller, which serves as a floating landing strip for Navy SEALs, among other forces.
The United States said no offense had occurred.
Since November, rebels have repeatedly attacked ships in the Red Sea in response to Israel's offensive against Hamas in Gaza.
But they often hit ships with weak or unclear ties to Israel, threatening shipping on a key trade route between Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
The Houthis hit a commercial ship with a missile on Friday, causing a fire that raged for hours.