The chief of Tehran’s Revolutionary Guards, Hossein Salami, has said that Iran will respond to any threat from the United States. This comes as the US prepares to respond to the killing of American servicemen by presumed Tehran-aligned militants. US President Joe Biden stated that he already has a plan to respond to the drone attack that killed three US service members in Jordan, but did not provide further details.
Washington has attributed the attack to Ketaib Hezbollah, a pro-Iranian militia based in Iraq. The group has announced a suspension of military actions against the US to avoid embarrassing the Baghdad government. In response to threats from American officials, Salami stated that no threat will go unanswered.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian emphasized the need for the US to accept the resistance as a fact and focus on a political solution. US forces have been engaged in strikes with pro-Iranian armed groups since Israel’s war with Hamas. The recent drone attack in Jordan was the first time US forces had suffered fatalities, increasing pressure on Biden to respond forcefully against Iran.
Iran’s envoy to the United Nations stated that Iran would respond decisively to any attack on its territory, interests, or nationals outside its borders. In recent weeks, presumed Israeli strikes on Syria have killed several Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Iran has also carried out attacks on what it called Israeli “spy headquarters” in Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
The most direct confrontation between Iran and the US in recent years was in January 2020 when US forces killed the commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ elite Quds force in a strike on a Baghdad airport. Tehran responded by targeting a US air base in Iraq.
