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JERUSALEM – The White House is dealing with withering criticism that President Biden’s “Don’t” assault warnings to Iran are usually not being taken significantly after Tehran-backed terror militias injured American army personnel on the Ain al-Asad air base in western Iraq on Monday and is suspected of one other assault in Syria on Friday.
On Saturday, Biden as soon as once more issued a “Don’t” when requested by reporters what his message to Tehran was. Critics argue his Iran coverage is adrift and his warnings to the Islamic republic and its proxies in October and April haven’t deterred them.
Following the Monday assault in Iraq, Biden, joined by Vice President Kamala Harris, met along with his nationwide safety staff on the newest developments within the Middle East and mentioned on X that along with discussing the threats from Iran and its proxies, “We also discussed the steps we are taking to defend our forces and respond to any attack against our personnel in a manner and place of our choosing.”
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo posted an interview with Fox News’ Bill Hemmer on X saying, “The Administration keeps saying “do not” to Iran – but then does nothing to impose costs. This weakness means the risk from Iran continues to grow.” Biden mentioned “Don’t” when requested if he had a message for Iran, days earlier than Iran’s first assault towards Israel in April.
US ASSETS DEPLOYED TO MIDEAST WILL HELP ISRAEL BUT WILL UNLIKELY ALTER IRAN’S MIND ON RETALIATION, EXPERTS SAY
President Biden and Vice President Harris obtain a briefing within the White House Situation Room from Homeland Security and regulation enforcement officers.
On Friday, yet one more assault towards a U.S. set up in Syria occurred with U.S. officers telling Fox News {that a} drone struck the realm, inflicting minor accidents to U.S. and coalition personnel. A harm evaluation was nonetheless ongoing.
Iran’s elevated jingoism within the Middle East is linked to the Biden administration’s failure to reestablish significant deterrence to blunt Tehran from launching new assaults, in line with one professional.
“So long as the U.S. remains fundamentally in the business of absorbing strikes by Iran-backed militias against its basing infrastructure and regional force presence, these attacks can be expected to continue. Militia rocket and mortar and drone attacks are one way Tehran chooses to fight America on the cheap,” Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow on the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, the place he focuses on the Iranian regime risk, advised Fox News Digital.”
U.S. soldiers train at al-Asad air base in Western Iraq. (U.S. Army )
He added, “With such lopsided response ratio, not less than 172 strikes since Oct. 7 and solely a handful, round 10 or so, responses, it’s no shock that the deterrence caused by the final time Washington meaningfully used drive towards these teams in early 2024 has worn off.”
The Iran expert continued, “Deterrence is iterative. That truth can’t be minimized within the Middle East at the moment. The rise in strikes by these militias could also be tied to a part of Iran’s bigger revenge technique after the killing of [Ismail] Haniyeh [a Hamas terror leader], the trickle of assaults beginning up since this summer time have extra localized issues by the militias in Iraq and Syria, and are half of a bigger plan to generate a cycle of violence that forces America from the area.”
HEZBOLLAH IS THE ‘X-FACTOR’ IN LOOMING ISRAEL, IRAN WAR WITH ‘NATION STATE CAPABILITIES’
A military truck carries a missile past a portrait of Iran’s leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during an annual military parade. (Atta Kenare/AFP/GettyImages)
Fox News Digital approached the State Department about the lack of an American military response to the Katyusha rockets that were fired at the base.
Before the latest attack in Syria, a State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital, “The Iran-aligned militia assault on U.S. forces stationed at Al-Asad Airbase in western Iraq marks a harmful escalation and demonstrates Iran’s destabilizing position within the area. As President Biden has made clear, we is not going to hesitate to defend our folks and maintain accountable all who hurt our U.S. personnel.”
Sabrina Singh, a deputy spokesperson at the Pentagon, said on Thursday about the attack, “It was two rockets launched by what we consider to be an Iranian-backed Shia militia group that impacted Al-Asad Airbase in Iraq. There was a 3rd rocket that was intercepted earlier than it impacted the bottom. In phrases of how these rockets bought via, look, that is one thing that CENTCOM goes to overview and is reviewing proper now. We need to make it possible for this does not occur once more.”
Four service members and one contractor were injured during Monday’s attack, according to the Pentagon spokesperson.
EXPECT IRAN’S RESPONSE TO EXTEND BEYOND THE MIDDLE EAST: ROBERT GREENWAY
U.S. soldiers prepare to go out on patrol from a remote combat outpost on May 25, 2021, in northeastern Syria. (John Moore/Getty Images)
Joel Rubin, a former State Department official during the Obama administration, defended Biden’s policies and told Fox News Digital, “The president has made it very clear to Iran that there can be vital penalties if it had been to take army motion towards Israel. In addition to sending extra army craft to the area, he’s working the diplomatic channels to ensure Iran understands this, creating deterrence. While the disaster has not but totally handed, it’s clear that Iran is pondering twice about its subsequent strikes.”
Iran’s main proxies in the Middle East are the Lebanese-based Hezbollah movement, Hamas, and the Houthi movement in Yemen. The Islamic republic has used its vast oil and gas profits over the decades to export its revolutionary Islamist ideology to countries in the Mideast and in the West, including the U.S., where U.S. intelligence revealed Tehran incited anti-Israel protests on college campuses, threatened to assassinate President Trump and is meddling in the presidential election.
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A mural of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, on March 8, 2020, in Tehran. (Kaveh Kazemi/Getty Images)
Iran has, since 1984, been continuously classified by the U.S. government as the world’s worst state-sponsor of terrorism. Radical Islamists seized power in Tehran in 1979 and declared America as the “nice Satan.” Iranian Islamists are also fond of chanting “Death to America” at mass occasions and within the nation’s parliament.
Fox News Digital reported in February that an Iranian manufactured drone fired by a Tehran-backed militia in Iraq killed three U.S. troopers in Jordan.
Fox News’ Andrea Vacchiano contributed to this report.
