By: Harold Hutchison, Daily Caller News Foundation
MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell told National Security Council spokesman John Kirby that the Biden administration’s policy on Iran didn’t “seem to be working” Monday.
American forces and Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria have engaged in back-and-forth strikes in November. The attacks increased since Hamas attacked multiple locations in southern Israel Oct. 7, killing over 1,400 people.
“The U.S. has now conducted its third round of retaliatory strikes against Iranian-linked sites in Syria,” Mitchell told Kirby Monday. “This time, notably, it killed several Iranians. Deterrence doesn’t seem to be working.”
“Well, again, these groups, the IRGC, the Revolutionary Guard Corps that works for the supreme leader, that funds and supports these militia groups, they got some choices to make,” Kirby responded. “If they want to keep attacking our troops in Iraq and Syria and keep threatening our facilities and the lives of our folks in harm’s way, then we’re going to have to continue to respond and respond aggressively and appropriately to mitigate that threat. These targets were targets that went directly at the IRGC’s ability to continue to provide capabilities to these groups.”
The Biden administration backed away from implementing oil sanctions on Iran, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Biden administration also arranged for South Korea to release $6 billion in proceeds from Iranian oil sales for humanitarian purposes as part of a deal to secure the release of five detained Americans, but Iran’s access to the funds was blocked again after the deadly Hamas attack.
“We’re not looking for conflict, we don’t want to see any more attacks, but we got to do what we’ve got to do to protect our troops and our facilities and we’ll keep doing that,” Kirby said.
Related Story: Iran-Backed Militias Attack U.S. Troops Four Times After U.S. Retaliatory Strikes
