Iran says it conveyed a rare direct message to the Untied States in the form of a written statement, at a moment the Middle East region is on edge, bracing for possible retaliation from Iran against Israel for the Monday attack on the Iranian embassy in Damascus. Iran now says it received an immediate response from the Biden administration, which warned Tehran not to attack US facilities as part of any potential revenge operation.
Iranian presidential aide Mohammad Jamshidi said the following on Friday: "In a written message, the Islamic Republic of Iran warns US leadership not to get dragged in Netanyahu's trap for US: Stay away so you won't get hurt.
Illustrative via AFP: Prior Iranian ballistic missile testThe official continued, "In response US asked Iran not to target American facilities." Since Oct.7, Iranian proxies in Iraq and Syria have sent drones and missiles against US bases many dozens of times, but these attacks have waned in last couple of months.
Throughout this span, however, Iran has never directly attacked US facilities from its soil. This did happen on a large scale in the immediate wake of the January 2020 US assassination by drone of IRGC Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, however. That's when Iranian ballistic missiles rained down on two Iraqi air bases housing US forces, resulting in American troop injuries at the time.
In the wake of this week's Israeli attack on Iran's embassy in Syria, which killed two senior IRGC commanders, the Biden administration quickly sought to distance the US from any involvement.
Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh had confirmed that US officials reached out to Tehran to convey that Washington was not responsible for the strike, which was an unprecedented attack given it was against a diplomatic facility, which is supposed to fall under the protection of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
"We were not notified by the Israelis about their strike or the intended target of their strike in Damascus," Singh said earlier this week.
However, Axios reported at the same time that the Israelis notified the US merely minutes before the strike, and that this was not an effort to seek a greenlight, but just a notification of an operation already in action.
Iran has still laid blame on the US for enabling Israeli aggression by being its biggest weapons supplier. The Pentagon says this is a concern:
On Wednesday in Washington, the top U.S. Air Force commander for the Middle East, Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, said Iran’s assertion that the U.S. bears responsibility for Israeli actions could bring an end to a pause in militia attacks on U.S. forces that has lasted since early February.
He said he sees no specific threat to U.S. troops right now, but “I am concerned because of the Iranian rhetoric talking about the U.S., that there could be a risk to our forces.”
Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary @DepPentPressSec tells Al Arabiya English’s @jhaboush that the #US was not notified about #Israel’s attack or the intended target of their strike in Damascus ahead of time, which killed senior IRGC officials.
— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) April 2, 2024
Read more: https://t.co/Xjm1YfGhJQ pic.twitter.com/LGFHFqJBOQ
Over the past five months there have been a total of at least 150 attacks on American bases in Syria and Iraq. There's also still an Iraqi government effort to get all US-led coalition forces expelled from the country, which has the broader support of the public.
Israelis will meanwhile continue to be on edge in the coming days, fearing some kind of large-scale ballistic missile attack out of Iran. Tel Aviv has warned the Islamic Republic not to launch any attack from its soil, saying it will be met with a stronger response and will take the conflict to the next level.