Joe Biden convened the US National Security Council in the Situation Room this morning “to discuss the latest developments regarding the attack on American soldiers in Jordan.” White House sources reported this to CNN.
Attendees included National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and Chief of Staff Jeff Zients.
The United States would respond robustly to the attack in Jordan, said John Kirby, White House national security adviser. Joe Biden will “respond consistently” to the attack, but we do not expect war with Iran. “We don’t expect a broad conflict in the Middle East,” Kirby said.
Three American soldiers were killed in a nighttime drone attack on a US position in northeast Jordan, near the border with Syria, while 34 others were injured. The Islamic Resistance Group in Iraq (a coalition of pro-Iranian Shiite militias) claimed responsibility for the attack. Al Jazeera reports on it.
Iran had denied involvement. “These accusations – said Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani, quoted by the Irna agency – are made with a political aim aimed at overturning the reality of the region.”
It is also the first attack since the start of the war in Gaza on US troops in Jordan, a key Middle East ally (with a crucial role also in Jerusalem for monitoring the holy sites), where about 3,000 American troops are stationed . There is therefore a risk of escalation and expansion of the conflict following the repeated attacks by pro-Iranian militias on US troops in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, to which the Pentagon has responded blow by blow. Particularly in the Red Sea, where Houthi attacks against merchant ships, not just American ones, continue. The raid embarrasses Biden during negotiations with Doha to release Iranian funds ($6 billion) in two Qatari banks following the release of some American hostages. And it is compounding his electoral difficulties on the war front: Over 1,000 African-American pastors, representing hundreds of thousands of believers across the country, have mobilized to ask him for a ceasefire in Gaza. He warns him that otherwise he risks losing the crucial African-American vote that he is trying to win back these days in South Carolina, the first stop in the Democratic primary on February 3rd.
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