Joe Biden said Tuesday he has decided how to respond after the deaths of three U.S. soldiers, a response that will likely take the form of “multiple” retaliations.
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Asked about Iran, the American president said: “I hold them responsible for providing weapons to the people who did this,” in this case the fighters responsible for Sunday's deadly attack in Jordan near the Syrian border are responsible.
The 81-year-old Democrat, who is under intense pressure from his Republican opponents to respond forcefully to Tehran, gave no further details in a brief exchange with reporters at the White House before heading to Florida, southeast, to campaign for the issue to campaign for the day. .
“It is very likely that you will see a graduated response, not a single action, but perhaps multiple actions,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby added later aboard the presidential plane.
The day before, the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, spoke of retaliation “at multiple levels, carried out in stages and spread over time.”
Return of the bodies
Before he left for Florida, where he needs to raise money for his campaign, Joe Biden spoke with the families of the three killed soldiers.
With their approval, John Kirby will go to the base in Dover, Northeast, on Friday to take part in a ceremony to repatriate the remains, according to John Kirby.
The American president also reiterated on Tuesday that he does not want a “major war in the Middle East,” a leitmotif for Americans since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.
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Sunday's drone attack targeted an American logistics base in the middle of the Jordanian desert on the border with Iraq and Syria. According to the US Army, there were three dead and several dozen injured.
Enough to revive the American right's criticism of Joe Biden's strategy towards Iran, which it considers far too complacent.
Former President Donald Trump, the absolute favorite in his party's primaries, responded on Sunday with criticism of his successor's “weakness.”
For his part, the leader of the Republican senators, Mitch McConnell, said: “The whole world is waiting to see whether the president finally decides to use America’s power to force Iran to change its behavior.”
China and Russia
The United States has suffered numerous attacks on positions in the Middle East since the war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7, but reported no human casualties as of Sunday.
The American army has already targeted pro-Iranian groups in Iraq and Syria, just as it has targeted Yemen's Houthi rebels, who are backed by Tehran and are increasingly carrying out attacks on ships in the Red Sea.
Above all, Joe Biden does not want to be drawn into a widespread regional conflict in the middle of an election year.
So far, it has refrained from attacking Iran directly, whether through targeted attacks on its territory or on high-ranking military officials.
The American president, who presents himself at the international level as the guarantor of order and democracy, must not only accept the criticism of his political opponents but also the calls for calm from America's major rivals, Russia and China.
“We believe that the level of tension is very worrying and that it is time to take measures to reduce tension,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the press on Tuesday Iran, an ally of Moscow, was asked about the danger of American reprisals.
Beijing, for its part, called on “all concerned parties” to exercise “calm and restraint.”