Iran Warns of Retaliation
Iran threatened to “decisively respond” to any US attack on the Islamic Republic following President Joe Biden's linking of Tehran to the killing of three US soldiers at a military base in Jordan.
The US has signaled it is preparing for retaliatory strikes in the Mideast in the wake of the drone attack that also injured at least 40 troops at Tower 22, a secretive base in northeastern Jordan that's been crucial to the American presence in neighboring Syria.
However, concerns remain that any additional American strikes could further inflame a region already roiled by Israel's ongoing war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the ongoing attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels on shipping in the Red Sea.
A US Navy destroyer in the waterway shot down an anti-ship cruise missile launched by the Houthis, the latest attack targeting American forces patrolling the key maritime trade route, officials said.
The Iranian warnings first came from Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran's ambassador to the United Nations in New York.
The Iranian mission to the UN did not respond to requests for comment or elaboration on Iravani's remarks.
Iravani also denied that Iran and the US had exchanged any messages over the last few days, either through intermediaries or directly.
But Iran's government has taken note of the US threats of retaliation for the attack on the base in Jordan.
A general in charge of Iran's air defenses described them as being at their “highest defensive readiness.” That raises concerns for commercial aviation traveling through and over Iran as well.
