Afrigather JERUSALEM (AP) — Iran threatened Wednesday to “decisively reply” to any U.S. assault on the Islamic Republic following President Joe Biden’s linking of Tehran to the killing of three U.S. troopers at a navy base in Jordan.
The U.S. has signaled it’s getting ready for retaliatory strikes within the Mideast within the wake of the Sunday drone assault that additionally injured at the least 40 troops at Tower 22, a secretive base in northeastern Jordan that’s been essential to the American presence in neighboring Syria.
Nonetheless, concerns remain that any further American strikes may additional inflame a area already roiled by Israel’s ongoing war on Hamas within the Gaza Strip and the continuing assaults by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on transport within the Crimson Sea.
A U.S. Navy destroyer within the waterway shot down an anti-ship cruise missile launched by the Houthis late Tuesday, the newest assault targeting American forces patrolling the important thing maritime commerce route, officers stated.
The Iranian warnings first got here from Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations in New York. He gave a briefing to Iranian journalists late Tuesday, in keeping with the state-run IRNA information company.
“The Islamic Republic would decisively reply to any assault on the county, its pursuits and nationals below any pretexts,” IRNA quoted Iravani as saying. He described any potential Iranian retaliation as a “sturdy response,” with out elaborating.
The Iranian mission to the U.N. didn’t reply to requests for remark or elaboration Wednesday on Iravani’s remarks.
Iravani additionally denied that Iran and the U.S. had exchanged any messages over the previous few days, both by intermediaries or instantly. The pan-Arab satellite tv for pc channel Al Jazeera, which is predicated in and funded by Qatar, reported earlier that such communication had taken place. Qatar usually serves as an middleman between Washington and Tehran.
“Such messages haven’t been exchanged,” Iravani stated.
However Iran’s authorities has taken observe of the U.S. threats of retaliation for the assault on the bottom in Jordan.
“Someday, our enemies elevate the risk and these days we hear some threats in between phrases by American officers,” Revolutionary Guard commander Gen. Hossein Salami, who solutions solely to Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, stated at an occasion Wednesday. “We inform them that you’ve got skilled us and we all know one another. We don’t go away any risk with out a solution.”
“We’re not after warfare, however we have now no worry of warfare,” he added, in keeping with IRNA.
On Saturday, a common in control of Iran’s air defenses described them as being at their “highest defensive readiness.” That raises considerations for industrial aviation touring by and over Iran as nicely. After a U.S. drone strike killed a top general in 2020, Iranian air defenses mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian passenger airplane, killing all 176 individuals on board.
In the meantime, assaults by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels proceed within the Crimson Sea, most lately focusing on a U.S. warship. The missile launched Tuesday evening focused the usGravely, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, the U.S. navy’s Central Command stated in a press release.
“There have been no accidents or injury reported,” the assertion stated.
A Houthi navy spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, claimed the assault in a press release Wednesday morning, calling it “a victory for the oppression of the Palestinian individuals and a response to the American-British aggression in opposition to our nation.”
Saree claimed the Houthis fired “a number of” missiles. one thing not acknowledged by the U.S. Navy. Houthi claims have been exaggerated prior to now, and their missiles generally crash on land and fail to succeed in their targets.
The Houthis claimed with out proof on Monday to have focused the usLewis B. Puller, a floating touchdown base utilized by the Navy SEALs and others. The U.S. stated there had been no assault.
Since November, the rebels have repeatedly focused ships within the Crimson Sea over Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza. However they’ve ceaselessly focused vessels with tenuous or no clear hyperlinks to Israel, imperiling transport in a key route for global trade between Asia, the Mideast and Europe.
The Houthis hit a industrial vessel with a missile on Friday, sparking a fire that burned for hours.
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Related Press author Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
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