Iran says it will respond ‘decisively’ to any US strikes

Iranian officials warned Wednesday that the country will respond “decisively” to any U.S. threat as the Biden administration considers a response to the weekend drone attack that killed three U.S. soldiers in Jordan

“The Islamic Republic would decisively respond to any attack on the county, its interests and nationals under any pretexts,” Amir Saeid Iravani, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, said Wednesday, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.

He added that any potential Iranian retaliation would be a “strong response” but did not elaborate on the details, The Associated Press reported.

The suicide drone attack was carried out by Iran-backed militia groups early Sunday morning and targeted Tower 22, a U.S. base in Jordan, according to the Pentagon. It killed three soldiers who were serving in the Army Reserve and wounded about 40 others.

The attack — which marked the first time U.S. service members have been killed in the Middle East since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October — has ramped up the pressure on the Biden administration to retaliate against Tehran. American troops have been targeted by Iranian-backed groups more than 160 times since the onset of the conflict in the region, and several Republican lawmakers have called for the White House to take swift and decisive action.

Biden, earlier this week, vowed to respond to the attack in a “time and manner of our choosing,” while administration officials have emphasized the U.S. is not seeking a war with Iran or widening the conflict in the Middle East.

“We hear threatening words from American officials,” Iranian Revolutionary Guard chief Hossein Salami said Wednesday, per the IRNA’s translation. “You have tested us, and we know each other. We will not leave any threat unanswered.”

“We are not after war, but we have no fear of war,” he added, according to the state-run media.

Al Jazeera, the pan-Arab satellite channel based in Qatar, previously reported that the U.S. and Iran have exchanged messages in recent days, which Iravani denied.

“Such messages have not been exchanged,” he said Wednesday, per the IRNA.

Iran has denied involvement in the Jordan attack and maintained it does not issue direct orders to militia groups. The U.S. contends Iran is widely complicit for attacks from its proxies.