President Joe Biden has sent a rare message to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warning Tehran against targeting U.S. personnel in the Middle East, the White House said on Thursday after a spate of attacks on American forces in the region.
"There was a direct message relayed," White House spokesman John Kirby said at a news briefing, declining to elaborate.U.S. officials want to avoid a wider conflict in the Middle East following the Oct. 7 attack by the militant Hamas group on Israel that killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians.
On Wednesday, Biden said he had warned the ayatollah the United States would respond if U.S. forces continued to be targeted but did not say how the message was communicated. "The US messages were neither directed to the leader of the Islamic Revolution nor were they anything but requests from the Iranian side. If Biden thinks he has warned Iran, he should ask his team to show him the text of the messages," Mohammad Jamshidi, a Raisi aide, wrote.
Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, which rules Gaza, in retaliation for the Oct. 7 attack in which the militant group also took about 200 people hostage. Israel has struck Gaza from the air, imposed a siege and is preparing a ground invasion.
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