U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan answers questions during the daily briefing at the White House on November 13, 2023 in Washington, DC.
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National security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday that the United States will take further military action against Iran-backed groups, increasing tensions in the Middle East, although Sullivan insisted the U.S. is not seeking a major conflict in the region.
“The president has been very clear from the beginning that if American forces are attacked, we will respond, and we have responded several times over the course of the last few months,” Sullivan said during an interview on NBC News. “Meet the Press” added that the recent U.S. attacks “are not the end” of the president’s ongoing military response. “We intend to take additional attacks and additional measures to continue to send a clear message that the United States will respond if our forces are attacked or our people are killed.”
Whether the US will carry out attacks in Iran or not remains unclear.
“I’m not going to go into detail about what we have decided and ruled out in terms of military action,” Sullivan said in response to moderator Kristen Welker’s question about whether or not the US has ruled out attacks in Iran.
“What I want to say is that the president is committed to responding forcefully to attacks on our people. “The president also does not expect a major war in the Middle East,” he added.
On Friday, the US carried out retaliatory strikes in Iraq and Syria against more than 85 targets linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and Iran-backed militants. The attacks were in response to a Jan. 28 drone attack on an American base in northeastern Jordan that killed three U.S. soldiers and wounded dozens more. The base, known as Tower 22, is located near the demilitarized zone on the border between Jordan and Syria and also near the Iraqi border.
A day after those strikes, the US and Britain carried out strikes on 36 Houthi targets in Yemen, in a second attempt to further destabilize the Iranian-backed groups. The Houthis, who have close ties to Iran, have fired on merchant ships and warships in the Red Sea, saying their actions were in solidarity with the Palestinians amid the Israel-Hamas war. These are “different but related challenges,” Sullivan said of the expanding conflict in the region, which he said the Biden administration is trying to prevent.
Iran has denied involvement in the drone strike in Jordan, stressing that the militants acted independently. Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday condemned overnight US strikes in Iraq and Syria.
Asked how worried he was that Iranian-backed forces could again act against U.S. forces, Sullivan replied: “That’s always a risk … if we see more attacks, you’ll see more reactions.”
Sullivan also appeared on ABC’s “This Week,” CBS’ “Face the Nation” and CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday mornings.
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2024-02-04 17:37:20
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