President Biden said Tuesday he has decided how he plans to respond to an attack on U.S. forces in Jordan that killed three Americans but stressed he was not seeking a wider war in the Middle East.
The president did not specify what the U.S. would do in response to the attack by Iranian proxies but said “yes” when asked if he had decided how to respond.
“I don’t think we need a wider war in the Middle East. That’s not what I’m looking for,” Biden told reporters as he left the White House for campaign events in Florida.
Asked if he holds Iran responsible for the attack on American forces, Biden said he does “in the sense that they’re supplying the weapons to the people who did it.”
John Kirby, a White House spokesperson on national security issues, told reporters a short time later the administration could pursue a “tiered” response.
“It’s very possible that what you’ll see is a tiered approach here,” Kirby said aboard Air Force One. “Not just a single action but potentially multiple actions over a period of time.”
Three American troops were killed and roughly 40 others were injured in a drone strike in Jordan near the Syrian border Sunday. The Pentagon suspects the strike on Tower 22 military base was carried out by Iranian-backed Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah.
Biden pledged to respond to the latest attacks in a “time and manner of our choosing.”
The president met Monday with members of his national security team, including national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Officials would not publicly comment on the potential options Biden was considering, but the White House was reportedly weighing targeting Iranian personnel in Syria or Iraq or hitting Iranian naval assets.
American troops have come under fire from Iranian-backed groups more than 160 times since late October.
The White House has in recent weeks launched precision strikes targeting Iranian-backed militia targets and struck back against the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen after the rebel group targeted commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
But the death of U.S. troops will increase the stakes for Biden at a time of wider tensions in the region amid the Israel-Hamas war. Numerous Republicans have called for Biden to take decisive action against Iran in response to the death of American forces, including some advocating for strikes inside Iran.
Updated at 12:55 p.m.