White House warns Iran not to respond to Israeli strikes

(JNS) — White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Wednesday that Iran should not respond to Israel’s Oct. 26 retaliatory strikes.

Should it choose to do so, she added, “The United States will be standing by to assist Israel in its defense.” 

Her remarks echoed those of U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, who said on Wednesday that Washington believes the Islamic Republic “should not respond.”

“I’m not going to talk about communications between our two governments, real or imagined. But as we have made clear publicly, and I can tell you that Iran knows this message quite clearly, they should not continue to escalate this conflict,” he said, according to CNN.

There have been conflicting reports since the Israeli attack about whether Tehran will respond and if so, what that response could look like.

CNN on Wednesday quoted a “high-ranking” anonymous source as stating that Iran will deliver a “definitive and painful” response in the near future. 

“The response of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Zionist regime’s aggression will be definitive and painful,” the source said. The Iranian response “will probably take place before the day of the U.S. presidential election,” according to the report. 

On Oct. 1, Iran launched 180 ballistic missiles at Israel in its second direct strike on the Jewish state. While most were intercepted, an Israeli air base suffered damage. In response, on Oct. 16, Israeli warplanes targeted 20 sites in Iran in multiple waves of strikes, reportedly knocking out Tehran’s air defense system and significantly setting back its missile production industry.

The Israeli strikes also reportedly destroyed multiple radar systems required to guide Iran’s ballistic missiles.

Initially, Tehran downplayed the Israeli attack, with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei later saying that the strikes should “neither be exaggerated nor downplayed.”

For its part, Jerusalem has pledged a strong response should Tehran attack Israel directly for the third time.

“If Iran makes the mistake of launching another missile barrage at Israel, we will once again know how to reach Iran, with capabilities that we did not even use this time, and strike very, very hard at both their capabilities and locations that we set aside for now,” Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi warned on Tuesday.