During an interview with CBS on Monday, White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby responded to a question on Iran attacking Israel despite American warnings to not do so and what that says about American influence in the region by stating that “I think another way of looking at this is, they didn’t. They meant to cause casualties, they meant to cause extensive damage inside Israel, and they didn’t.”
Co-host Tony Dokoupil asked, “Let’s talk about deterrence, because after decades of war via proxies between Iran and Israel, we now have the first direct attack by Iran on Israel. And it follows the U.S. saying to Iran, don’t. Well, they did. So, what is the state of U.S. influence in the region this morning?”
Kirby responded, “I think another way of looking at this is, they didn’t. They meant to cause casualties, they meant to cause extensive damage inside Israel, and they didn’t. And the reason they didn’t was because the United States and partners came to help…defend Israel, we came to their assistance, and we knocked down just about everything that the Iranians threw up into the sky. And as the president told Prime Minister Netanyahu on the phone Saturday night, this was an extraordinary success, and you ought to look at it as an extraordinary success. Israel proved that it’s not alone and they proved that they’re militarily superior to Iran. And they ought to consider what that success actually means in the region. There’s no reason for this to escalate further. The president doesn’t want a wider war in the region. Everything he’s been doing since October 7 has been designed to prevent that. And, of course, we’re not looking for a war with Iran.”
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