2024-01-29T06:23:01+00:00
A-
A
A+
/ US President Joe Biden finds himself facing several scenarios, after his pledge to respond to the attack on “Tower 22” that killed three American soldiers in Jordan.
Biden vowed Sunday to respond after a drone attack on a base in Jordan that he blamed on Iran-backed factions, amid increasing attacks on US forces in the region.
“We had a tough day last night in the Middle East. We lost three brave souls,” Biden said during a visit to South Carolina, before vowing that the United States would “respond.”
The US military announced on Sunday that three of its soldiers were killed and about 25 others were injured in a drone attack targeting a base housing US forces in Jordan. While the White House said it was still gathering information about the attack, initial reports revealed some details of what happened.
CNN and the Wall Street Journal reported that the targeted site was “Tower 22,” a small military site in Jordan, near the country’s border with Syria.
Options on the table
Washington has not revealed its options for responding to the attack near the border with Syria, while analysts believe that there are a number of possible scenarios for dealing with these threats.
This is the first time that American soldiers have been killed by enemy fire since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
This comes at a time when Biden is facing criticism in Congress over his recent strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen and other militia groups in the Middle East.
Lawmakers argue that the president lacks the authority to carry out strikes unilaterally, while foreign policy hawks say he doesn’t go far enough, Axios reported. But the debate in Congress is unlikely to prevent a U.S. response to the attack that killed the three soldiers. Richard Weitz, a political and military analyst at the Hudson Institute, said the president has both easy and hard options in responding to the latest attack.
In an interview with Alhurra, Weitz said that the easiest and closest option is to attack Iranian targets in Syria, which is what American forces have done before without a response from the Syrian regime.
The most difficult scenario, according to Weitz, is to attack Iranian targets in Iraq while talks are underway to withdraw troops, according to the analyst, who adds that carrying out strikes in Iraq would be the most daring step, “and I don’t know if Biden will go in that direction at a time when there are demands in Congress to do so.”
The analyst says that there is another scenario, which is to attack Iran directly, but he ruled out that the US president would take such a step. He explained, “I would be surprised if Biden did that, because he had the opportunity to do so before but refrained.”
There are Republican members of Congress who are calling for this option, Weitz continues, “because it’s easier for them because they’re not in power,” he says, referring to the difficulty of this option.
US forces and the international coalition against ISIS have been targeted in more than 150 attacks since mid-October, according to the Pentagon, and Washington has carried out retaliatory strikes in both countries.
Options that exclude direct war
David Ramadan, a former Republican congressman from Virginia, asserts that Washington will certainly respond, and perhaps “with a more forceful response than many expect.”
Ramadan, a professor of political science at George Mason University, added, “However, the response options will be within the limits of not wanting to engage in a direct war with Iran and avoiding a regional conflict in the Middle East.”
Among the possible scenarios, according to Ramadan, is a strike targeting Iran’s military infrastructure. Another scenario, Ramadan says, is taking indirect action through regional proxies.
For more than two months, Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have been launching attacks in the Red Sea targeting ships they say are linked to Israel, in what they say is support for the Palestinians in Gaza.
The United States and Britain responded with two series of joint strikes against the Houthis, and US forces have also carried out unilateral raids against the Houthis, who have since declared US and British interests legitimate targets.
The escalating violence in many parts of the Middle East has raised fears of a wider regional conflict directly involving Iran — a worst-case scenario that Washington is desperate to avoid, U.S. officials say.