The Cradle, January 31, 2024 —The Commander in Chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Major General Hossein Salami, on 31 January, warned that Iran is ready to respond to any threat from the US as Washington weighs an answer to an attack by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI) that killed three US soldiers earlier this week.
“We hear threats coming from US officials, we tell them that they have already tested us and we now know one another, no threat will be left unanswered,” Salami said on Wednesday.
“The enemies have prepared wars against Iran in all fields, militarily, economically, in the media, and psychologically,” the IRGC chief added.
Iran’s envoy to the UN, Amir Saeid Iravani, also warned on Wednesday that Tehran would respond decisively to any attack on its territory, its interests, or Iranian nationals outside its borders.
The comments from Iranian officials came less than a day after US President Joe Biden announced he had made a decision about the US response to the drone strike that hit the Tower 22 US outpost on the Jordan-Syria border.
Asked on Tuesday by a CNN reporter whether he has decided how to respond, Biden said, “Yes,” but declined to provide further details. Earlier, Biden blamed Iran for providing the weaponry used in Sunday’s attack by the IRI.
Nonetheless, the US president claimed he did not seek a broader war in West Asia. Reports say the White House has been sending messages to the Islamic Republic via third-party back channels urging them not to retaliate after the upcoming response.
When pressed by ABC News on whether direct strikes against Iran were on the table, a senior US official told the outlet that “Biden has deep misgivings about retaliatory strikes on Iran itself.”
As anticipation builds for the US response, Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah – one of the factions within the IRI – announced on Tuesday the suspension of all military operations against US troops in the region, in a decision they say seeks to prevent “embarrassing” the Iraqi government.
“We announce the suspension of military and security operations against the occupation forces – in order to prevent embarrassment to the Iraqi government – we will continue to defend our people in Gaza in other ways,” the statement reads.
“Our brothers in the Resistance Axis, especially in Iran, do not know the specifics of our jihadist work, and they have repeatedly declared opposition to our escalation against the US forces in Iraq and Syria,” the Kataib Hezbollah statement adds.
According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), the IRGC has also communicated with armed factions in Deir Ezzor governorate to stop attacks against US occupation bases.
Over the past three months, armed factions within the IRI umbrella conducted over 150 attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for Washington’s support for the Israeli genocide campaign in Gaza.