(Washington) Joe Biden said on Tuesday that “yes”, he had decided how to respond after the death of three American soldiers, killed by a drone strike in Jordan on Sunday, while pressure does not weaken in the United States for a response firm on Iran.
Asked about Tehran, the American president said: “I hold them responsible to the extent that they provide weapons to the people who did this”, in this case the pro-Iran fighters responsible, according to Washington, for the murderous attack.
The 81-year-old Democrat did not provide further details during a quick exchange with journalists who were waiting at the White House for his departure for Florida.
Joe Biden, who is seeking a second term, must spend the day there raising funds from wealthy donors to his party, a trip which has raised some questions.
“The president remains the president, no matter where he travels,” his spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre assured Monday.
The American president, whose administration has promised a “consequential” response, also repeated Tuesday that he did not want a “wider war in the Middle East”, a leitmotif of the Americans since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.
The drone attack on Sunday targeted an American logistics base located in the middle of the Jordanian desert, on the border with Iraq and Syria. It left three dead and several dozen injured, according to the American army.
Enough to revive criticism from the American right of Joe Biden’s strategy towards Iran, which it considers far too complacent.
Former President Donald Trump, ultra-favorite in his party’s primary, reacted on Sunday by criticizing the “weakness” of his successor.
China and Russia
The leader of the Republican senators, Mitch McConnell, for his part declared: “The whole world is waiting to see if the president finally decides to use American power to force Iran to change its behavior. Our enemies feel themselves growing wings.”
The United States has suffered numerous strikes against positions in the Middle East since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7, but until Sunday had not reported any human losses.
The American army has already responded in a targeted manner against pro-Iran groups in Iraq and Syria, just as it has struck the Houthi rebels in Yemen, supported by Tehran and who are increasing attacks against ships in the Red Sea.
Joe Biden above all does not want, in the middle of an election year, to be drawn into an extensive regional conflict.
It has so far refrained from directly striking Iran – whether by targeting its territory or senior military officials.
The American president, who presents himself as a guarantor of order and democracy at the international level, must, in addition to criticism from his political adversaries, accept calls for calm from America’s great rivals, Russia and the China.
“We consider that the level of tension is very alarming and that the time has come to take measures to defuse tensions,” declared Tuesday the spokesperson for the Russian presidency, Dmitri Peskov, to the press who questioned him on the risk of American reprisals against Iran, an ally of Moscow.
Beijing, for its part, called on “all parties concerned” to “calm and restraint”.
The Americans would like China, a crucial economic partner for Iran, to put pressure on Tehran in order to calm things down in the Middle East and in particular in the Red Sea.
A senior American official admitted on Saturday, following high-level Sino-American discussions, that these requests from Washington to Beijing had so far not brought appeasement.