Senators outraged after deadly attack on US outpost
Iran denies role in Jordan drone strike
A series of GOP lawmakers are ramping up the pressure on President Joseph Biden to retaliate against Iran following the strike on the border of Jordan and Syria that killed three US service members and injured at least two dozen others over the weekend.
President Biden and UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron claimed that “Iranian-backed groups,” mainly based in Iraq, were accountable for the drone attack on the border of Jordan and Syria on Sunday, which killed at least three American servicemen and wounded 34 others.
Concerns have been raised by US lawmakers and other government leaders that the repeated attacks against US bases and troops signal the risk of the Gaza war escalating into a wider conflict in the Middle East.
In response to the claims, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said the regional resistance groups do not take orders from Iran, nor does the Islamic Republic have a role in their decisions to carry out retaliatory operations in defense of the Palestinian people.
“Iran is not involved in the resistance groups’ decisions about how to support the Palestinian people, or defend themselves and the people of their countries in the face of any aggression and occupation,” the spokesman said in a statement on Monday.
Also, in a statement published late on Sunday, Iran’s mission to the United Nations said Tehran has no links to the attacks as they are related to the conflict between resistance groups and the US military.
The statement said Iran had no link to the attack, adding that the incident was part of the “conflict between the army of the United States of America and resistance groups in the region, which reciprocate retaliatory attacks.”
The attack marks the first time that US military personnel were killed since the start of the Israeli onslaught on Gaza on October 7.
In his statement, Biden said the attack took place in northeast Jordan, near the Syrian border. Jordan, however, says it did not occur on its soil, but in Syria.
The US president said efforts are underway to gather the facts of the attack and vowed revenge.
“Have no doubt – we will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner of our choosing,” he said.
Meanwhile, the UK prime minister has urged Iran to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East after the drone attack.
“We are concerned and would urge Iran to continue to de-escalate tensions in the region… We absolutely condemn what has happened over the past couple of days,” Sunak said on Monday.
Sunak’s spokesperson also told reporters that they believe that the attack was carried out by Iran-backed groups operating in Syria and Iraq, in line with the US assessment.
The Iranian spokesman further said that since the beginning of Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, Iran has repeatedly warned against the danger of the expansion of the conflict in the region due to Israel’s continued attacks against the Palestinian people and the US’s full support for the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in the besieged strip and the occupied West Bank.
He emphasized that the US’s insistence and continuous violation of the national sovereignty of Iraq and Syria and bombing attacks against the groups and people of Iraq, Syria and Yemen have intensified the instability in the region.
Since the beginning of Israel’s war against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on October 7, there have been around 160 attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria. Most of those have been claimed by regional resistance forces.
Iran has frequently said resistance groups act on their own in response to Israeli crimes in Gaza.
The Hill, Reuters, and Press TV contributed to this report.