{"id":112227,"date":"2024-04-15T17:05:46","date_gmt":"2024-04-15T15:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=112227"},"modified":"2024-04-15T07:37:30","modified_gmt":"2024-04-15T05:37:30","slug":"18-05-92","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=112227","title":{"rendered":"Israel \u2018came out far ahead,\u2019 senior US officials say of Iran attack"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Israel \u2018came out far ahead,\u2019 senior US officials say of Iran attack<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n

ANDREW BERNARD<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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The senior officials declined to say if or how Israel should respond to the aggression but said Washington would not participate in any strike against the Islamic Republic.<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

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\nA U.S. destroyer launches a standard missile 2 (SM-2) while operating in the Philippine Sea on April 5, 2024. Credit: Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Hannah Fry\/U.S. Navy photo.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Senior Biden administration officials said on Sunday that Israel \u201ccame out far ahead\u201d in its \u201cexchange\u201d with Iran. The Jewish state did so after \u201cspectacular success\u201d in intercepting Iran\u2019s drone and missile barrage on Saturday night, the officials said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking in a background press briefing, the senior administration, and defense and military officials, described U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s phone call on Saturday night in the aftermath of the attack.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe president told the prime minister that Israel really came out far ahead in this exchange,\u201d the senior administration official said. \u201cIsrael took out the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps leadership in the Levant. Iran tried to respond and Israel has clearly demonstrated its military superiority, defeating this attack, particularly in coordination with partners, first and foremost the United States, and others.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

An April 1 airstrike in Damascus killed Brig. Gen. Mohammad Zahedi, a top commander in the IRGC\u2019s Quds Force who was responsible for Syria and Lebanon, in a building adjacent to the Iranian embassy in Syria. Israel has not officially claimed responsibility for the strike, though U.S. and other officials have attributed it to Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n

In response, Iran carried out its first-ever direct attack on Israel, launching hundreds of drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles from Iranian territory towards targets within Israel on Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Israel Defense Forces\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0on Sunday that Israel and its partners intercepted the attack with a 99% success rate, destroying all of the drones and cruise missiles before they entered Israeli territory. They also intercepted almost every ballistic missile.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018It was a pretty broad engagement zone\u2019<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

During Sunday\u2019s call, the U.S. officials described America\u2019s role in defending Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Biden is the first American president to directly defend Israel,\u201d the senior administration official said. \u201cHe followed and directed every detail of this response, starting nearly two weeks ago as we began to receive word and indication that Iran was preparing for a large-scale attack.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Former U.S. President George H.W. Bush noted in 1991 that U.S. troops defended Israelis directly under his administration during the Gulf War. \u201cJust months ago, American men and women in uniform risked their lives to defend Israelis in the face of Iraqi Scud missiles,\u201d Bush\u00a0said<\/a>, which seems to contradict the Biden administration official\u2019s claim.<\/span><\/p>\n

The senior military official said on Sunday that U.S. guided missile destroyers intercepted between four and six Iranian ballistic missiles, and U.S. aircraft destroyed more than 70 Iranian one-way drones. A U.S. Patriot missile battery also shot down a ballistic missile over Erbil, Iraq.<\/span><\/p>\n

The military official said that Israel intercepted the majority of Iran\u2019s ballistic missiles using its Arrow-2 and Arrow-3 anti-ballistic missile systems.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe intercepts themselves took place not only over Israeli airspace but over neighboring countries as well,\u201d the official said. \u201cIt was a pretty broad engagement zone.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While the official could not say how many U.S. planes took part in the defensive operation, the planes took off from both U.S. \u201cland bases and the sea,\u201d the official said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Asked whether the United States wants Israel to not respond to Saturday\u2019s attack and \u201ctake the defensive success as the win,\u201d the senior administration official declined to say how Israel should respond.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a calculation the Israelis have to make,\u201d the official said. \u201cThis was an unprecedented attack from Iran against Israel. At the same time, we think in the overall exchange here, the Israelis came out clearly very much on top and demonstrated their ability to defend their country in coordination with us and others. It speaks for itself.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think that the big question is not only whether but what Israel might choose to do, and so this is a decision for them,\u201d the official added. \u201cI\u2019m not going to answer it that specifically.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Whatever Israel opts to do, the Biden administration will not take part.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are committed to defending Israel. We would not be a part of any of any response they do,\u201d the official said. \u201cThat\u2019s very consistent policy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The senior officials also described the Biden administration\u2019s direct communications with Iran via the Swiss diplomatic channel in the days before the attack. They denied that Iran gave Washington any useful forewarning about the strikes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey did not give a notification, nor did they give any sense of, you know, \u2018These will be the targets, so evacuate them,\u2019\u201d the official said. \u201cThey were clearly intending to destroy and to cause casualties.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that they didn\u2019t, I think they might want to now say, \u2018Well, we didn\u2019t mean to.\u2019 But launching 100 ballistic missiles, targeting certain locations, that was clearly their intent. They just didn\u2019t succeed,\u201d the official added. \u201cSo no, there was no such forewarning or anything like that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The senior administration official said that the extent of the success fending off the Iranian attack was only truly revealed on Sunday morning.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think the kind of spectacular success, I don\u2019t use that word lightly, really became known only in the light of day,\u201d the official said. \u201cWhen you can really see that there was almost no damage at all\u2014took down almost all of these things. It\u2019s extraordinary.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Israel \u2018came out far ahead,\u2019 senior US officials say of Iran attack ANDREW BERNARD The senior officials declined to say if or how Israel should respond to the aggression but said Washington would not participate in any strike against the Islamic Republic. . A U.S. destroyer launches a standard missile 2 (SM-2) while operating in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112227"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=112227"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112276,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112227\/revisions\/112276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=112227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=112227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=112227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}