White House: If Iran Proxies Keep Attacking Troops, We’ll Continue ‘to Mitigate that Threat’

On Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby responded to claims that the U.S. is failing to deter Iranian proxy groups by stating that if the attacks continue, “we’re going to have to continue to respond and respond aggressively and appropriately to mitigate that threat.”

Host Andrea Mitchell said, “[T]he U.S. has now conducted its third round of retaliatory strikes against Iranian-linked sites in Syria. This time, notably, it killed several Iranians. Deterrence doesn’t seem to be working.”

Kirby responded, “Well, again, these groups and the IRGC, the Revolutionary Guard Corps that works for the supreme leader that funds and supports these militia groups, they’ve got some choices to make. 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. We’re not looking for conflict. We don’t want to see any more attacks. But we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do to protect our troops and our facilities, and we’ll keep doing that.”

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