The United States rejected Iran’s assertion that it had provided advance notice to Washington and neighbouring countries before carrying out an unprecedented air strike on Israel.
A senior official in the Biden administration dismissed Iranian Foreign Minister H. Amirabdollahian’s statement that Iran had given neighbouring countries and the United States, Israel’s ally, a 72-hour notice before the attack.
In a statement to news agency Reuters, the top US official said, “That is absolutely not true. They did not give notification, nor did they give any sense of ‘these will be the targets, so evacuate them.
We received a message from the Iranians, as this was ongoing, through the Swiss. This was basically suggesting that they were finished after this, but it was still an ongoing attack. So that was their message to us,” the U.S. official added.
In addition, the US official’s statement should be considered in light of the confirmation from Turkish, Jordanian, and Iraqi officials regarding Iran’s claim of providing advanced notice prior to launching its drone and missile attack on Israel.
Before the attack, the Turkish Foreign Ministry had engaged in discussions with both Washington and Tehran, acting as an intermediary to ensure that any reactions would be proportionate.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has reaffirmed unwavering support for Israel in the face of Iran’s attack, which involved the deployment of numerous drones, ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles, escalating tensions in the Middle East and bringing the region closer to the brink of a widespread conflict.
In a statement released earlier condemning Iranian aggression, Biden said, “I’ve just spoken with Prime Minister Netanyahu to reaffirm America’s ironclad commitment to the security of Israel.
I told him that Israel demonstrated a remarkable capacity to defend against and defeat even unprecedented attacks, sending a clear message to its foes that they cannot effectively threaten the security of Israel.”
“At my direction, to support the defence of Israel, the US military moved aircraft and ballistic missile defence destroyers to the region over the past week.
Thanks to these deployments and the extraordinary skill of our servicemembers, we helped Israel take down nearly all of the incoming drones and missiles,” he added.
