The White House national security adviser emphasized that "the president is determined to respond strongly to attacks against our people."
Washington is not ruling out an attack on Iran, the White House national security adviser said, adding that more US retaliatory strikes against factions close to Tehran are imminent for the attack on Jordan.
"There will be further action in retaliation (…) for the tragic death of three brave members of the (armed forces) of the United States," Jake Sullivan said in an interview on ABC News' "This Week."
"We have to prepare for every eventuality," he continued. "I would simply say, as far as Tehran is concerned, that if it chooses to immediately retaliate against the US, there will be (…) a strong response from us," he added, according to a New York Daily News report.
His remarks came a day after the third joint military operation by the US and Britain against the Houthi rebels in Yemen and two days after bombings on the territory of Syria and Iraq against elite members of the Iranian army and armed groups close to Tehran.
When pressed to say what Washington will do about Iran in a second interview yesterday on NBC's "Meet the Press," Mr. Sullivan said gruffly that ''I'm not going to get into what we've excluded and what we haven't. military operations perspective," adding that "the president is determined to respond forcefully to attacks on our people" even though he "does not seek a wider war in the Middle East," which concerns are intensifying against the backdrop of the Israel/Hamas war in the Strip Gaza from October 7.
Foreign policy hawks in Republican ranks insist on demanding US strikes on Iran.
"We should not seek appeasement of Iran," House Speaker Mike Johnson said on the same NBC show. "This is what the Biden administration has been doing for three years. We are showing weakness on the world stage." He called for Washington to crush "Iran's central bank," among other things.
Source: huffingtonpost.gr