Biden administration warns Iran not to strike Israel again, saying US cannot prevent Israel from a larger retaliatory attack if Tehran launches a third attack on the Jewish state.
By David Rosenberg, World Israel News Staff
Following a pair of Iranian ballistic missile attacks on Israel earlier this year, the Biden administration has warned Tehran that the United States will not be able to curb Israel’s retaliation should Iran attack Israel directly for a third time, Axios reported Saturday night.
According to a U.S. official and a former Israeli official cited by the Axios report, the Biden White House has urged Iran not to undertake another strike on Israel, following the April 13th combination drone and missile attack, and the October 1st ballistic missile attack.
While the U.S. pressured Israel to restrain its response after both attacks, the White House warned Iran that it would be unable to curb Israel’s retaliation after a third attack.
“We told the Iranians: We won’t be able to hold Israel back, and we won’t be able to make sure that the next attack will be calibrated and targeted as the previous one,” the American official told Axios.
According to the source, the Biden administration conveyed the message directly to Iran, an unusual step for the U.S., which typically communicates with Iran via intermediaries.
The Israeli official cited in the report said, however, that a message was transmitted from the U.S. to Iran via Switzerland.
The Biden administration declined to comment on the Axios report.
Over the weekend, the U.S. deployed B-52 Stratofortress bombers to the Middle East, and bolstered its naval presence in the region, as Iran threatened a “crushing response” against Israel over its October 26th retaliatory strikes on Iran, carried out in response to the October 1st ballistic missile attacks.