US President Joe Biden spoke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late on Saturday night, after Iran launched an attack on Israel involving hundreds of drones and missiles.
In a statement following the call, Biden wrote, “Earlier today, Iran—and its proxies operating out of Yemen, Syria and Iraq—launched an unprecedented air attack against military facilities in Israel. I condemn these attacks in the strongest possible terms.”
“At my direction, to support the defense of Israel, the US military moved aircraft and ballistic missile defense destroyers to the region over the course of the past week. Thanks to these deployments and the extraordinary skill of our servicemembers, we helped Israel take down nearly all of the incoming drones and missiles,” he added.
“I’ve just spoken with Prime Minister Netanyahu to reaffirm America’s ironclad commitment to the security of Israel. I told him that Israel demonstrated a remarkable capacity to defend against and defeat even unprecedented attacks – sending a clear message to its foes that they cannot effectively threaten the security of Israel,” said Biden.
“Tomorrow, I will convene my fellow G7 leaders to coordinate a united diplomatic response to Iran’s brazen attack. My team will engage with their counterparts across the region. And we will stay in close touch with Israel’s leaders. And while we have not seen attacks on our forces or facilities today, we will remain vigilant to all threats and will not hesitate to take all necessary action to protect our people,” he concluded.
Earlier, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
A US official told CNN after the call that Austin asked Gallant to notify the US ahead of any potential response to the Iranian attack.
Meanwhile, a senior administration official and a senior defense official told NBC News on Saturday night that there is concern among top US officials that Israel could do something quickly in response to Iran’s attacks without thinking through potential fallout afterward.