A senior US official says his country is not after a war with Iran following a drone attack on a US military outpost in Jordan that killed three American servicemen.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Monday that the US would deliver a “very consequential response” to the attack a day earlier on the Tower 22 barracks near Jordan’s border with Syria, which Washington blamed on militants linked to Iran. Iran has rejected the accusation.
However, Kirby insisted that such a response would not mean a war with Iran, whom Washington accuses of supporting groups opposed to the US presence in the region.
“… we don’t seek a war with Iran. We’re not looking for a wider conflict in the Middle East,” he told the CNN.
Kirby said that the US wants the recurrent attacks on its military personnel in the region to stop while claiming that Washington is after a stable, secure and prosperous Middle East.
The comments come as resistance groups in several Arab countries continue to launch attacks on US and Israeli interests in the region as part of a campaign to secure an end to the brutal Israeli aggression against Palestinians in Gaza.
Iraqi resistance groups have carried out more than 150 attacks on US positions in Iraq and Syria since early October when the Israeli war on Gaza began, according to tallies provided by the US military.
That comes on top of attacks mounted by Yemen’s ruling Ansarullah movement on US ships sailing in the Red Sea and in surrounding waters. The attacks began this month after Washington led a military campaign against Yemen to force the country to end attacks on Israeli-linked ships in the region.
Regional resistance groups have said that attacks on the US and allies could stop if Israel agrees to a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
