On Tuesday, in the wake of Iran launching hundreds of ballistic missiles at Israel, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan stated there would be “severe” consequences for Iran as a result.
“Today Iran launched nearly 200 ballistic missiles towards targets in Israel,” Sullivan began. “The United States military coordinated closely with the Israeli defense forces to help defend Israel against this attack. U.S. naval destroyers joined Israeli air defense units in firing interceptors to shoot down inbound missiles.”
“President Biden and Vice President Harris monitored the attack and the response from the White House situation room joined in person and remotely by their national security team,” he declared. “We are still working with the IDF and the authorities in Israel to assess the impact of the attack but at this time, and I stress, at this time, we do not know of any deaths in Israel. We are tracking the reported death of a Palestinian civilian in Jericho in the West Bank. We do not know of any damage to aircraft or strategic military assets in Israel.”
“In short, based on what we know at this point, this attack appears to have been defeated and ineffective,” he asserted. “This was first and foremost the result of the professionalism of the IDF but in no small part because of the skilled work of the United States military and meticulous joint planning in anticipation of the attack.”
Sullivan noted a concurrent terrorist attack in Israel: “We are also aware of reports of a terrorist attack in Jaffa that took the lives of a number of Israeli civilians and wounded several others today.”
“We will consult with the Israelis on next steps in terms of the response, and how to deal with what Iran has just done and we will continue to monitor for further threats and attacks from Iran and its proxies. We are particularly focusing on protecting U.S. service members in the region.”
Asked whether Israel should retaliate, Sullivan responded: “We’ve had some initial discussions with the Israelis in the aftermath of this at the military level and also at the White House/Prime Minister’s office level and we’ll continue those conversations in the hours ahead.”
“Obviously this is a significant escalation by Iran,” he declared, “a significant event and it is equally significant that we were able to step up with Israel and create a situation in which no one was killed in this attack in Israel so far as we know at this time. We are now going to look at what the appropriate next steps are to security first and foremost American interests and then to promote stability to the maximum extent possible.”
He concluded, “We have made clear that there will be consequences, severe consequences, for this attack and we will work with Israel to make that case.”