White House rattles its saber with warnings to Iran, China about attacking US allies

WASHINGTON — The White House has been rattling its saber this week, warning China and Iran against attacking two key allies as U.S. officials track a “credible” threat of an imminent Iranian strike inside Israel.

President Joe Biden has been in diplomat-in-chief mode, huddling with the leaders of Japan and the Philippines for high-stakes talks aimed at bolstering cooperation with both countries to combat China’s outsize influence in the region and beyond. Meantime, administration officials have a message for Iran, saying they are closely monitoring a potential retaliatory strike inside Israel that could set the tinderbox Middle East afire.

“We are certainly mindful of a very public and what we consider to be a very credible threat made by Iran in terms of potential attacks on Israel,” John Kirby, White House national security communications adviser, said Friday. “We are in constant communication with our Israeli counterparts about making sure that they can defend themselves against those kinds of attacks.

“And, believe me, our Israeli counterparts are taking it seriously,” he added.

Kirby, a retired Navy rear admiral who was the top spokesperson for then-Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen, said U.S. intelligence officials have briefed Biden on what “we do believe… still is a viable threat.” Senior U.S. military officials were in Israel on Friday to discuss the threat with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

Biden “has kept himself completely informed. He is being briefed by the national security team multiple times a day in terms of what we’re seeing,” Kirby told reporters. “And again, he has made it clear to the entire national security team that … we will take seriously our commitments to the defense, the self-defense of Israel.”

The spokesman’s comments came two days after Biden himself addressed the threat to Israel, which would be retaliation for an Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic facility in Syria that killed a senior Iranian military official and several others.

“They’re threatening to launch a significant attack on Israel,” Biden said during a joint news conference Wednesday with his Japanese counterpart.

“As I told Prime Minister Netanyahu, our commitment to Israel’s security against these threats from Iran and its proxies is ironclad,” Biden said, referring to a telephone conversation he had with the embattled Israel prime minister earlier this month. “Let me say it again: ironclad. We’re going to do all we can to protect Israel’s security.”

Asked Friday if the U.S. could get directly involved should Iran go through with the Israel attack, Kirby declined to comment, though he did say the situation could force administration and Pentagon officials into “maybe making prudent adjustments on our own.”

Kirby did make a point to note that Biden has ordered retaliatory U.S. strikes on Iranian-backed groups in the region that have targeted American forces based there.

“We know that proxy groups and groups that Iran supports can only do what they do with the support of Iran,” Kirby said. “And so we have said, for instance, when our troops and facilities have been attacked by proxy groups in Iraq and Syria, or these attacks by the Houthis, that these groups may be pulling a trigger, but the bullets in the chamber are being provided by Iran.

“So Iran certainly is culpable. Iran certainly bears responsibility as well for those kinds of attacks,” he added. “We’ve been pretty honest about that. There’s been no okay. There’s been no pulling back on that.”