Joe Biden said Tuesday that “yes,” he has decided how to respond after the deaths of three U.S. service members, a response that will likely take the form of “multiple” retaliations.
Asked about Iran, the American president said: “I hold them responsible to the extent that they provide weapons to the people who did this”, in this case the fighters responsible for the deadly attack on Sunday in Jordan, near the Syrian border.
The 81-year-old Democrat, who faces intense pressure from his Republican adversaries to respond firmly to Tehran, did not give further details during a quick exchange with journalists at the White House, before leaving to make campaign for the day in Florida (southeast).
“It is very possible that you will see a graduated response, not a single action but potentially multiple actions,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby later added aboard the presidential plane.
The day before, the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken had mentioned retaliation “at several levels, carried out in stages and spread over time.”
Return of the bodies
Before leaving for Florida, where he must raise funds for his campaign, Joe Biden spoke with the families of the three soldiers killed.
It is with their agreement that, according to John Kirby, he will go to the Dover base (north-east) on Friday, to attend a ceremony marking the repatriation of the remains.
The American president also repeated Tuesday that he did not want a “wider war in the Middle East”, a leitmotif of the Americans since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.
The drone attack on Sunday targeted an American logistics base located in the middle of the Jordanian desert, on the border with Iraq and Syria. It left three dead and several dozen injured, according to the American army.
Enough to revive criticism from the American right of Joe Biden’s strategy towards Iran, which it considers far too complacent.
Former President Donald Trump, the ultra favorite in his party’s primary, reacted on Sunday by criticizing the “weakness” of his successor.
The leader of the Republican senators, Mitch McConnell, for his part declared: “The whole world is waiting to see if the president finally decides to use American power to force Iran to change its behavior.”
China and Russia
The United States has suffered numerous strikes against positions in the Middle East since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7, but until Sunday had not reported any human losses.
The American army has already responded in a targeted manner against pro-Iran groups in Iraq and Syria, just as it has struck the Houthi rebels in Yemen, supported by Tehran and who are increasing attacks against ships in the Red Sea.
Joe Biden above all does not want, in the middle of an election year, to be drawn into an extensive regional conflict.
It has so far refrained from directly striking Iran – whether by targeting its territory or senior military officials.
The American president, who presents himself as a guarantor of order and democracy at the international level, must, in addition to criticism from his political adversaries, accept calls for calm from America’s great rivals, Russia and the China.
“We consider that the level of tension is very alarming and that the time has come to take measures to defuse tensions,” declared Tuesday the spokesperson for the Russian presidency, Dmitri Peskov, to the press who questioned him on the risk of American reprisals against Iran, an ally of Moscow.
Beijing, for its part, called on “all parties concerned” to “calm and restraint”.
