President Biden said Iran cannot act with impunity and warned Tehran to “be careful” as he explained the message behind the overnight U.S. airstrikes targeting Iran-backed militias in Syria.
The region poses the president’s first major foreign policy test.
“You can’t act with impunity,” he said on Friday as reporters asked what the strikes meant for Iran. “Be careful.”
Biden authorized attacks on a facility operated by Iranian-backed militias on Thursday night in response to following rocket attacks on U.S. targets in Iraq.
SYRIA STRIKE DODGES DIFFICULT CLASH WITH IRAN IN IRAQ
They come at a time when Washington and Tehran are considering ways to re-enter a nuclear deal abandoned by former President Donald Trump amid rising tensions.
Rockets hit the U.S. base at Erbil International Airport in Iraq’s Kurdish-run region on Feb. 15, killing a contractor and wounding several U.S. personnel.
Earlier, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the U.S. airstrikes showed that Biden would act against aggression.
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“The president is sending an unambiguous message that he’s going to act to protect Americans, and when threats are posed, he has the right to take an action at the time and in the manner of his choosing,” she said. “He also is going to take those actions in a manner that’s deliberative, and that has the objective of de-escalating activity in both Syria and Iraq.”
