About 900 additional US troops are headed to the region or have recently arrived there to bolster air defences to protect US personnel amid a surge in attacks in the region by Iran-affiliated groups, the Pentagon said.
“My warning to the ayatollah was that if they continue to move against those troops, we will respond, and he should be prepared. It has nothing to do with Israel,” he told reporters.
Iran to host Armenia-Azerbaijan peace talks amid Middle East tensions
Iran to host Armenia-Azerbaijan peace talks amid Middle East tensions
In a comment posted on social media before Kirby spoke, an aide to Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi disputed Biden’s account.
“The US messages were neither directed to the leader of the Islamic Revolution nor were they anything but requests from the Iranian side. If Biden thinks he has warned Iran, he should ask his team to show him the text of the messages,” Mohammad Jamshidi, a Raisi aide, wrote.
“The United States cannot both send military equipment to the Israeli regime and take charge of managing the war with one hand, while issuing political messages with the other hand, and speak about its opposition to the expansion of the war,” IRNA cited the unnamed source as saying, adding Iran’s allies “act independently and are not subject to Tehran’s orders.”
Palestinian authorities say more than 7,000 people have been killed, though Biden has voiced scepticism about such numbers. Reuters has been unable to independently verify the death toll.
On Thursday, Iran’s Foreign Minster Hossein Amirabdollahian said at the United Nations that if Israel’s retaliation against Palestinian militants Hamas in the Gaza Strip does not end, then the United States will “not be spared from this fire.”
One way Iran projects power is by arming and funding militant groups, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis in Yemen and Shiite militias in Iraq.
In the last such known US retaliation, the US military carried out multiple air strikes in Syria on March 23 against Iran-aligned groups it blamed for a drone attack that killed an American contractor, wounded another and injured five US troops.