The United States has said it helped Israel thwart an Iranian ballistic missile attack, with a senior White House official telling reporters that the US military “coordinated closely” with its Israeli counterparts to shoot down the projectiles.
US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday that “US naval destroyers joined Israeli air defence units in firing interceptors to shoot down in-bound missiles”.
“In short, based on what we know at this point, this attack appears to have been defeated and ineffective,” Sullivan said during a news briefing at the White House.
“This was first and foremost the result of the professionalism of the [Israeli military]. But in no small part because of the skilled work of the US military and meticulous joint planning in anticipation of the attack.”
Asked what Washington’s view was on possible Israeli retaliation, Sullivan said discussions were continuing between top US and Israeli military and political leaders. “We want to have some deep consultations with the Israelis,” he said.
Sullivan added later: “We are proud of the actions that we’ve taken alongside Israel to protect and defend Israel. We have made clear that there will be consequences — severe consequences — for this attack, and we will work with Israel to make that the case.”
Analysts have been warning for months that the failure of US President Joe Biden’s administration to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to agree to a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip would push the Middle East into a regional war.
“A regional war becomes inevitable when the United States continues to fund and aid Netanyahu and all of his war crimes, his genocide, his attacks on all of his neighbours,” said Raed Jarrar, advocacy director at DAWN, a think tank in Washington, DC.
“This will not stop without the United States putting its foot down and saying, ‘We will not send more weapons to Israel. We will not fund and aid Israeli crimes,’” Jarrar told Al Jazeera.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it fired missiles at Israel on Tuesday evening in retaliation for the killings of people in Gaza and Lebanon, as well as the recent assassinations of Hamas, Hezbollah and IRGC leaders.
The firings came just hours after the Israeli army said it had launched “limited” ground incursions into southern Lebanon. Hezbollah denied that Israeli forces had entered Lebanese territory.
The Israeli military, which has been trading fire with Hezbollah across the Israel-Lebanon border for months, recently escalated its assault on the country. Israeli strikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut and other areas have killed and injured thousands of people over the past weeks.
Amid the surge in attacks and regional tensions, the Biden administration has repeatedly said it favours diplomacy and wants to see a de-escalation.
But critics have noted that the US government continues to offer Israel unwavering military and diplomatic support.
Washington provides Israel with at least $3.8bn in military aid annually, and Biden has greenlit $14bn in additional assistance to the US ally since the Gaza war began in October of last year.
In his first comments on the Iranian attack, Biden told reporters that his administration was in “active discussion” with Israel on its response.
“The attack appears to have been defeated and ineffective,” the US president said, adding that “the United States is fully, fully, fully supportive of Israel”.
‘Severe consequences’
Earlier on Tuesday, the White House said that Biden had “directed the US military to aid Israel’s defense against Iranian attacks and shoot down missiles that are targeting Israel”.
The Pentagon also said in a statement that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant had discussed “the severe consequences for Iran in the event Iran chooses to launch a direct military attack against Israel”.
The statement did not elaborate on what those consequences would be.
A spokesman for the US State Department said on Tuesday afternoon that the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s security remains “ironclad”.
“We will continue to stand with the people of Israel at this critical moment,” Matthew Miller told reporters.
This morning, @VP and I convened our national security team to discuss Iranian plans to launch an imminent missile attack against Israel.
We discussed how the United States is prepared to help Israel defend against these attacks, and protect American personnel in the region.
— President Biden (@POTUS) October 1, 2024
But according to Jarrar, the analyst at DAWN, the Biden administration’s “blank cheque” policy to Israel is what led to the current escalation. “The Biden administration is dysfunctional and there is no one behind the wheel. There is no leadership whatsoever,” he said.
“This administration is completely absent. They give Israel 100 percent of what they want, from weapons and money, and they can exercise 0 percent pressure on Israel. Netanyahu gets all that he wants, but he doesn’t have to pay a price for anything.
“What we’ve seen today is a result of this failed US leadership in the Middle East and North Africa. The region has officially entered a full-scale regional war.”
Khalil Jahshan, executive director of the Arab Center Washington DC, also said the Biden administration’s unconditional support for Netanyahu’s government was taking the entire region to “the unknown”.
In the year since the Gaza war began, Jahshan told Al Jazeera that the US has shown “total blind support” for not only Israeli policies, but “for Israeli excesses”, as well.
“This is the result of a one-sided policy that refused to accept any element of rationality from the beginning of this conflict,” he said.