National security adviser Jake Sullivan dismissed notions that the war in the Middle East has expanded after the United States conducted drone strikes in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq.
When pressed Sunday by Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker on whether the current war in the region has expanded, Sullivan rejected the notion that the various threats are connected — singling out Houthi attacks on shipping containers in the Red Sea.
“Well, first, we don’t accept that what’s happening in the Red Sea, for example, Kristen, is entirely tied to the war in Gaza because the Houthis are attacking shipping that has absolutely nothing to do with Israel. So there are connections among these things, to be sure, but these are distinct threats as well that we need to deal with on their own basis,” Sullivan said.
“So in the Red Sea, we need to deal with the threat to commercial shipping, and we are doing so with a coalition of countries. In Iraq and Syria, we need to deal with threats to our troops, and we’re doing so including with the strikes the president ordered Friday night,” he added.
Sullivan also dismissed the idea that the U.S. is involved in a wider war in the Middle East, instead insisting on NBC News’s Meet the Press that the country is “responding to threats” with the actions taken, in the aftermath of a drone attack that killed three U.S. servicemembers last week.
“What the United States is doing is responding to threats as we see them with significant but proportionate force,” Sullivan said.
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The national security adviser would not say if the U.S. was ruling out conducting strikes in Iran, saying that “it would not be wise for me to talk about what we’re ruling in and ruling out” on national television.
Sullivan also said that the U.S. intends “to take additional strikes” on Iran-backed targets after various rounds of attacks throughout the weekend.
