White House on Failing to Deter Iran: ‘Can’t Deny’ There Have Been ‘Increasingly Lethal’ Attacks

On Monday’s broadcast of “CNN This Morning,” White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby responded to a question on whether the Biden administration’s failure to deter Iran and its proxies has invited more attacks by stating that “I certainly can’t deny the fact that there have been a series of attacks now, increasingly lethal, over weeks and months.”

Kirby said, “There has been no question, Phil, for now many months, that these groups are trying to threaten our troops and facilities, and that means trying to do it in a lethal way. So, in this particular attack, they did kill three American servicemembers and then, again, wounded 30 more. So, this one had lethal consequences in ways that previous ones didn’t. But that doesn’t mean that the intent in the previous attacks [wasn’t] also lethal, it’s just that we were able to defeat them.”

Co-host Phil Mattingly then asked, “Which raises the question — I think it was a question that was raised by Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, who said the administration’s responses thusfar have only invited more attacks. If that has always been the case, if the dozens of attacks that have happened before now — and they have continued, is that accurate that the responses thusfar have not stopped this, there has been no deterrence, and therefore, there have been more?”

Kirby responded, “Well, I certainly can’t deny the fact that there have been a series of attacks now, increasingly lethal, over weeks and months. Which is why the president is going to be reviewing what the appropriate response is going forward. We don’t want to see these attacks continue, and we want to make it clear that they’re unacceptable. We also want to make it clear that we’ll do what we have to do to protect our troops, our facilities, our national security interests in the region. Those are the options that the president is weighing right now, and we’re going to take this very, very seriously.”

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