Eldad Shavit and Sima Shine
INSS Insight, No. 1776, Nov. 1, 2023
“Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi confirmed that the United States had relayed messages to Tehran and said in response that it had “received a tangible answer on the ground” and that the US “is asking us not to move while it provides broad support to the Zionist entity…This is an unacceptable demand.”
Since the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas, and following the unequivocal support by the United States for Israel, pro-Iranian militias have intensified significantly their attacks on US targets in Syria and Iraq. At the same time, the Houthis, who are supported by Iran, launched several barrages of surface-to-surface missile and drones from Yemen in the direction of Israel and Egypt; these were intercepted by US and Israeli forces. These attacks came after several months of calm resulting from certain agreements between the US and Iran as part of the prisoner-exchange deal that also saw frozen Iranian funds released.
In response to the attacks against them, US forces targeted two weapons storage facilities belonging to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and their allies on the Iraq-Syria border. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austian stressed that these “precision self-defense strikes” were meant to send a message to Iran that the United States would not tolerate such attacks and would defend itself, its forces, and its interests. He also said that the Biden administration is not interested in a conflict and has no desire or intention to carry out further activity, adding that these operations were separate and distinct from the ongoing fighting between Israel and Hamas.
The militias, for their part, made exactly the opposite argument, emphasizing that US support for Israel in the fighting against Hamas was the motive for their attacks.
The White House also stated that US President Joe Biden sent a direct message to the Iranian leadership, warning it against continued attacks against US targets in the Middle East and against taking advantage of the circumstances and instructing Hezbollah to broaden the war against Israel.
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