(Washington) The United States on Sunday warned Iran and its affiliates against widening the conflict in the Middle East, warning that they “will act” in the event of attacks against their interests and Israel and announcing a deployment reinforced military.
Hours after the Pentagon announced an increase in its military presence in the region in the face of “recent escalations by Iran and its affiliated forces,” Defense Secretaries Lloyd Austin and Foreign Affairs Secretary Antony Blinken expressed their serious “concerns” about the risk of regional conflagration.
After two weeks of war against Palestinian Hamas, Israel is preparing for a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip under siege and Iran, ally of the Palestinian Islamist group, has warned Washington and the Jewish state that the situation risks become “uncontrollable” in the Near and Middle East.
In fact, “we are concerned about the possibility that Iranian proxies may escalate their attacks against our own personnel [militaire]our own nationals,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken responded on CBS television.
PHOTO JACQUELYN MARTIN, ASSOCIATED PRESS
The head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken
No one should take advantage of this moment to escalate attacks against Israel or against us, against our personnel [militaire et civil dans la région].
Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State
” Act in consequence ”
Just before on the ABC News channel, the Secretary of Defense hammered at the address of “those who would seek to widen the conflict […] : Our advice is “don’t do it”. We preserve our right to defend ourselves and we will not hesitate to act accordingly.”
“In fact, what we are seeing,” Austin insisted, “is the prospect of a significant escalation of attacks against our troops and nationals in the region.”
He too warned “any organization or any country which would seek to widen the conflict and take advantage of this extremely unfortunate situation”, but without mentioning by name Iran or Hezbollah, which Israel accused on Sunday of “training Lebanon in the war.
The United States will “do what it takes to ensure that [leurs] troops are well positioned, protected and that[ils ont] the ability to respond,” said the head of the Pentagon.
In a press release overnight from Saturday to Sunday, Washington announced the deployment of a high altitude anti-missile defense system (THAAD) as well as several batteries of Patriot surface-to-air missiles “in the region”.
In addition, “additional” military forces will be placed in a “pre-deployment” state, in order to “increase their readiness and their ability to respond as quickly as necessary,” according to the Pentagon.
“Deterrence” and “defense of Israel”
According to Lloyd Austin, this is about “strengthening” “regional deterrence” and “contributing to the defense of Israel”.
PHOTO SIMON WOHLFAHRT, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin
The Pentagon did not specify how many soldiers would be deployed in addition to the soldiers already present in the region, particularly in Iraq where American troops were recently the target of attacks.
The United States also ordered the evacuation of non-essential personnel from its embassy in Baghdad and its consulate in Erbil on Friday “due to growing security threats to United States personnel and interests,” he said. the State Department announced on Sunday.
According to Secretary Lloyd Austin, the strengthening of the military system was decided after “specific discussions” with President Joe Biden, who was in Israel on Wednesday in particular to obtain access from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi. humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, via the Rafah border crossing.
A second convoy of 17 trucks carrying aid entered the besieged Palestinian territory on Sunday, in a catastrophic humanitarian situation and against which Israel is intensifying its bombings.
On October 7, in the middle of Shabbat, the weekly Jewish rest, and on the last day of the Sukkot holiday, hundreds of Hamas fighters infiltrated Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip, sowing terror in an attack without precedent since. the creation of Israel in 1948.
More than 1,400 people were killed in Israel, most of them civilians shot, burned alive or mutilated on the day of the attack, according to Israeli authorities.
In the Gaza Strip, at least 4,651 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in incessant bombings carried out in retaliation by the Israeli army, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.