As the administration of US President Joe Biden deliberates on how to address the recent drone attack on a US military base in Jordan without entangling in a prolonged conflict, political discourse in Washington revolves around the adopted policies concerning Iran.
Washington has accused pro-Iran factions of orchestrating the attacks, holding Iran accountable for supporting these factions.
This marks the first attack resulting in the death of American soldiers in the Middle East since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war in October.
US officials have confirmed to CBS News that plans have been approved for a series of strikes over a number of days against targets — including Iranian personnel and facilities — inside Iraq and Syria.
"We will have a multitiered response, and ... we have the ability to respond a number of times depending on what the situation is," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.
Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq - which claimed responsibility for the attack - announced Wednesday that it was suspending military operations against American forces.
Austin reacted to the group's statement during Thursday's news conference.
"We always listen to what people are saying, but we watch what they do, and ... actions are everything, so we'll see what happens in the future."
"This is a dangerous moment in the Middle East," Austin said. “We will continue to work to avoid a wider conflict in the region, but we will take all necessary actions to defend the United States.”
Austin said he didn't know whether Iran knew about the attack ahead of time, yet he called upon Tehran to quit supplying the Houthis in Yemen with weapons.
“We don't see an all-out conflict between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah.”
Weather will be a major factor in the timing of the strikes, the US officials told CBS News, as the US prefers to have better visibility of selected targets as a safeguard against inadvertently hitting civilians who might stray into the area at the last moment.
Gen. Robert Abrams, a retired combatant commander, said the US Central Command, which oversees forces in the region, will be trying to provide several military strike options to the president.
"Biden needs to send a message, but he also doesn't want to escalate the tensions ... That's the hard conversation that is happening right now between the Pentagon, CENTCOM, and the White House," Abrams told ABC News Live.
The US has assessed that Iran manufactured the drone that slammed into a US base in Jordan over the weekend, killing three American soldiers and wounding more than 40, four US officials told Reuters.
The attack in Jordan, and any US response, is likely to stoke fears of wider conflict in the Middle East.
Teams of Biden and Trump
The military and policy decisions leading up to last weekend’s violence are many. Trump’s ordered assassination of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani. Biden’s lifting of sanctions on Tehran. Trump’s withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal. Biden’s partial response to Iran-backed attacks on US troops, according to Politico newspaper.
Each of these actions emboldened Iran or staved off war — depending on whom you ask (the team of Biden or Trump).
Killing Soleimani didn’t stop attacks
Attacks didn’t stop after Soleimani was killed. Five days later, on Jan. 8, 15 missiles hit a US base in Iraq, injuring more than 100 Americans. US personnel and contractors were also killed in separate attacks in Iraq and Syria that spring and the conditions in Baghdad deteriorated so much that then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo threatened to shut the US Embassy in Baghdad.
Top national security officials who served under Trump, as well as congressional Republicans, accused Biden of failing to prevent the attack and argued that the strike would not have happened if Trump had been president.
They argue that Biden has not struck back forcefully enough to the more than 160 attacks by Iran-backed proxies on US troops in Iraq, Syria and now Jordan, since October — showing a weakness that emboldened Tehran to continue encouraging the drone and missile strikes.
“The biggest problem is a failure of deterrence. Iran and its proxies believe they can attack the United States with impunity, which has been the case for three years,” Robert O’Brien, Trump’s last national security adviser, said in an interview. “Our weakness is provocative.”
Biden spokesperson Andrew Bates accused the former Trump officials and congressional Republicans of attempting to “politicize” Sunday's attack. He also said they should “stop giving Iran a pass for helping Russia attack Ukraine,” a reference to Iran's shipment of drones and other weapons to Moscow for strikes on Kyiv.
“Attempts by far-right congressional Republicans and former Trump officials to politicize our national security are illogical and detrimental to our safety and security,” Bates said in a Tuesday statement to Politico.
Behnam Ben Taleblu of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies revealed that, for now, the US intends to target locations and warehouses of Iranian-backed militias outside Iran.
The objective is to deprive Iran of a pretext for direct retaliation. Concerns loom over the potential escalation of conflict and its impact on oil prices, he added.
Taleblu, in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, asserted that calls for retaliation against Iran may be futile, considering the US may lack the will to sustain a prolonged military campaign.
Trump - also - chose to use force against Iranian-backed militias when there were American losses, he noted.
