“Iran should not respond to Israel’s retaliation,” Jean-Pierre said, before adding that “if Iran does choose to respond, however, the US will be standing by to assist Israel in its defense”.
Israel’s recent raids on Iran will be met with a “definitive and painful” response that will likely come before the US presidential vote, a high-ranking source told CNN on Wednesday.
US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller did not offer an assessment about what Iran “may or may not do”, but reiterated that the US believes “they should not respond”.
Miller did not say if Iran had conveyed to the US an intention to respond before November 5.
“I’m not going to talk about communications between our two government, real or imagined. But as we have made clear publicly, and I can tell you that Iran knows this message quite clearly, they should not continue to escalate this conflict,” he said at a press briefing Wednesday.
The Israeli regime attacked several Iranian military facilities early Saturday, killing four servicemen of the Armed Forces and one civilian.
The Iranian Air Defense Forces said in a statement that the country’s integrated air defense system successfully intercepted and countered the Israeli strikes targeting military locations in Tehran, Khuzestan, and Ilam provinces.
The attacks caused limited damage in some locations and the dimensions of the incident are under investigation, the statement added.
Iran has strongly condemned the Israeli assault as a blatant violation of international law and the UN Charter, reiterating its right to defend itself against foreign acts of aggression. Tehran has stressed that it is not looking for war but will not abandon its right to give an appropriate and firm response to Israel’s latest onslaught.
