Biden rejects war with Iran over murdered US troops

Joe Biden said he has decided how the US will respond to the murder of three US soldiers in northern Jordan by Iran-backed militias, playing down the chance of a direct strike on Iran.

The risk of a US war with Iran over three murdered US soldiers appeared to decline on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT) after President Joe Biden told reporters he didn’t want a war with Iran and had decided how the US would respond.

Speaking to reporters before he set off to Florida for a campaign event, the president, 81, answered “yes” when asked if he’d decided how to respond to Sunday’s drone attack by an Iran-backed militia on US soldiers in north Jordan near the Syrian border.

Mr Biden told reporters as he left the White House for a fundraising event in South Florida that “yes” he had decided how to respond, adding “I don’t think we need a wider war in the Middle East. That’s not what I’m looking for”.

The president has come under intense pressure, especially from top Republicans in congress, to retaliate against Iran for the drone, which Tehran has denied responsibility, in a presidential election year.

“I do hold them responsible in the sense that they’re supplying the weapons to the people who did it,” Mr Biden added in his remarks to reporters.

A day earlier Secretary of State Antony Blinken commented the situation in the Middle East, already wracked by the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, was “as dangerous as the one we’re facing now across the region since at least 1973, and arguably even before that.”

“I think it’s very important to note that this is an incredibly volatile time in the Middle East,” the secretary of state said on Monday (Tuesday AEDT) during a joint press conference with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.

William Jerome Rivers, 46, Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, and Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, died — and more than 30 US troops suffered injuries, many serious, according to information released by the Pentagon.

After the attack over the weekend, the first of over 150 attacks on US forces in the Middle East since October that had resulted in the death of US military personnel, top Republican congressmen demanded the president attack Iran in response.

L-R Sgt. Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46, of Carrollton, GA. Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, of Waycross, Ga. Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, of Savannah, Ga. 3 US soldiers killed in drone strike in Jordan. Photo: Supplied

“The only thing the Iranian regime understands is force. Until they pay a price with their infrastructure and their personnel, the attacks on U.S. troops will continue,” Senator Lindsey Graham said in a statement. “Hit Iran now. Hit them hard,” he added, reflecting similar if less stridently put views among other Republicans.

In a social media post on Monday (Tuesday AEDT) the president said the US would respond “at a time and in a manner of our choosing” while the White House separately said the president was “weighing his options” for a “very consequential” response.

Today, I was briefed by members of my national security team in the Situation Room on the latest developments regarding the attack on U.S. service members in northeastern Jordan.

As I've said, we'll hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner of our choosing. pic.twitter.com/pLScFuXjk2

— President Biden (@POTUS) January 29, 2024

“He’s under tremendous pressure – the administration’s in a kind of a lose-lose situation,” Colin Clarke, research director at the Soufan Centre in New York told AFP.

“I think he’s going to get hammered by people saying he’s weak and he’s going get hammered by people saying he’s going too far. So it’s damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”

Direct strikes on Iranian territory would be a significant escalation, but more restrained action against Tehran’s proxies could fuel the fires of conflict, experts said.

Further involvement would undermine Mr Biden’s prized policy of extracting America from its “forever wars” in the Middle East – even if the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan on his watch led to a Taliban takeover.

Separately on Tuesday Beijing and Moscow in public official statements urged the US to show restraint in its response against their ally in the Middle East, to avoid a “cycle of retaliation”

“We have also noted that Iran stated that it had nothing to do with the attack, China’s foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella term for a number of Iran-backed militias, has claimed responsibility for the attack.

With AFP