Washington D.C./Tehran: After the June 27, 2021 “defensive precision” airstrikes on the Iraq-Syria border – two in Syria and one in Iraq – against what Pentagon claimed to be “facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups” , the White House has said that the US “should and will take necessary and appropriate measures to defend U.S. personnel, partners, and allies in the region”.
There were no reports of any casualty due to the airstrikes and Pentagon spokesman John Kirby had said in a statement “these facilities are utilized by Iran-backed militias that are engaged in unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) attacks against US personnel and facilities in Iraq.”.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki stated last night (IST), “…we continue to believe that — and have never held back from noting that Iran is a bad actor in the region. And they have taken part in and supported and participated in problematic — extremely problematic behavior, in our view”.
Justifying the attacks, Psaki said that the airstrikes were “necessary, appropriate, and deliberate” which were designed to “limit the risk of escalation”.
While the airstrikes had coincided with the visit of Israeli President Reuven Rivlin to Washington, she denied any relationship to Rivlin. However, during their meeting on June 28, US President Joe Biden and Rivlin did have a lengthy discussion on Iran wherein Biden conveyed his unwavering support for Israel’s security and discussed the many challenges facing the region, including the threat posed by Iran.
Biden went to the extent of reassuring Rivlin that under his administration, Iran will never get a nuclear weapon. He also assured President Rivlin that the United States remains determined to counter Iran’s malign activity and support for terrorist proxies, “which have destabilizing consequences for the region”.
Psaki told journalists last night, “Certainly, I would say — just kind of in relation to this question over here — you know, At the same time, we feel that we’re moving forward, and look — seeking the opportunity to move forward on negotiations to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon is in our national interest and that’s how we will evaluate.”
It is further significant to note that during a media briefing on June 25, Patrick Worman, acting director of the office of the global coalition to defeat ISIS, had spilled the beans on the impending US move, while replying to a question that whether the assassination of a top Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani at Baghdad airport last year when he was killed in a drone attack by the US while on his way to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi in Baghdad on January 3, 2020, helped in decreasing Iranian influence in the neighboring countries like Bahrain and Iraq, or helped increase the number of ISIS fighters.
“I’m not sure we see really necessarily any clear connection per se. ISIS branches and affiliates both within the region and beyond continue to pose a somewhat persistent threat. But we feel quite good both within the coalition and within – with our – with the international system more broadly on the sort of scheme and effort that we have set out, which is highlighted by close intelligence and information sharing, border security efforts, rule of law, and efforts to counter ISIS’s malign narratives. So I think those efforts continue apace, and I think they continue successfully quite independent of any implications emanating from the assassination of Soleimani,” Worman had said.
Much is also being read about a statement by the Director-General of the UN nuclear watchdog, International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, who had confirmed Iran had not responded to the IAEA letter about continuing the technical understandings agreement on monitoring its nuclear program, after Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf had categorically said on June 27, 2021 that his country would never share recorded footage of activity at some of its nuclear sites with IAEA. Ghanibaf made the statement days after an agreement between Iran and IAEA , which was made in February 2021 and renewed for a month in May to allow the IAEA to temporarily monitor Iran’s nuclear activity, expired.
Iran’s hardened stance has now even caused much speculation over USA’s participation in the Vienna talks between Iran and six world powers to revive the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal. As it is, the Biden administration, has been refusing to lift sanctions until Iran returns to the nuclear deal.
A tense US-Iran showdown in fact was imminent ever since the newly elected Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, a hardliner who opposes negotiations with the United States and is scheduled to take over from the present incumbent Dr. Hassan Rouhani – a moderate, in August this year, categorically rejected any prospect of meeting the US President.
Also read: Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s President-elect, has an unenviable task ahead
Significantly, Rouhani, unlike his successor, had supported outreach to Western counterparts and even talked to the then President Barrack Obama over telephone. This has triggered some sense of urgency for the talks bust as the situation stands today, six rounds of negotiations in Vienna have thus far failed to reach any agreement. However, there is still some hope as Raisi has indeed expressed support for rejoining the 2015 nuclear deal. And this gives hope that the Vienna talks might not be derailed despite the airstrikes.
Moreover, Iran’s outgoing President Dr. Rouhani, with an obvious reference to the US as an “enemy”, today (June 29, 2021) at the meeting of the Cabinet’s Economic Coordination Board, was confident that “with the resistance of the people today, we are witnessing the promising signs of the defeat of the enemy’s economic war and the lifting of oppressive sanctions against the Iranian nation,. He had added that, “We will see the fruit of the Iranian nation’s resistance to the economic war and the enemy’s admission of the ineffectiveness of sanctions”. It may be mentioned that earlier this month, the USA had made an official announcement about lifting the sanctions on equipment needed to fight COVID-19 in Iran.
Psaki said last night that while there were already six round of negotiations completed, “certainly we want to look to build the Iran deal beyond what it was in the past. We’ve been very clear about that, and that’s part of the discussions and negotiations, and the next step would be the seventh round of discussions and negotiations.
However, what seems important is her remarks – “But I would say that, as it relates to responding to attacks on our men and women serving — or threats, I should say, to our facilities that are in the region, that we don’t see that on the same exact track.”
The USA has contended while justifying the airstrikes that the President took this action pursuant to Article 2 authority to defend U.S. personnel. The targeted strikes were directed at facilities used by Iran-backed militias involved in these ongoing attacks for purposes including weapons storage, command logistics, and unmanned aerial vehicle operations. “So, Article 2 — the self-defense, the defense of the United States and our interests — is our domestic justification for the strikes announced yesterday,” Psaki said.
She made it clear that so far as reaching out to Iran concerning the Nuclear deal was concerned, ‘I don’t have a timeline yet for when those will reconvene.” He concluded: “But I don’t have anything to preview in terms of other outreach to Iran.”
– global bihari bureau
