Iran denies links to Jordan drone strike that killed 3 US troops
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00:00 We start then with the latest on the killing of three US troops at an American base in Jordan.
00:06 Today, Iran has denied any involvement in the drone attack, saying it was not seeking an
00:14 expansion of the conflict in the Middle East. But President Biden has blamed militant groups
00:19 backed by Iran. And yesterday, one such group called the Islamic Resistance claimed it launched
00:27 drone attacks on bases in Syria, including one, it said, near the Jordanian frontier.
00:33 Well, to tell us a bit more, our chief foreign editor, Rob Parsons, is with me. And Rob, look,
00:39 it is a slightly confusing picture, even now, a day or so after this happened. So just tell us
00:45 what we know for the moment. Well, you mentioned that organization,
00:48 the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, which is an umbrella group for Iran-affiliated militias
00:54 in Iraq, and they have launched several attacks against the United States over the last few months
00:59 since its creation last year. They, as you say, are now claiming responsibility for
01:05 some attacks in that area. And it does look like they are the ones who launched this attack.
01:09 And we know Iran is claiming it has absolutely nothing to do with it. Yes, you know, it's an
01:17 Iran-affiliated group. But that doesn't mean, Iran says, that Iran issues the instructions
01:22 whenever they carry out an attack. They take their own decisions. Whether that's the case or not,
01:27 that's what Iran is saying at the moment. And probably it's what the United States wants to
01:31 hear at the moment as well, because it doesn't want to be sucked into a conflict with Iran.
01:35 What seems to have happened is that, yes, there was a drone attack.
01:38 According to the Americans, a drone came in, as they put it, low and slow.
01:43 And what happened was that at the very moment that it was coming in, there was a U.S. drone
01:51 that had been on a mission coming back to the base at exactly the same time. So they switched
01:56 off their air defence system just at that moment. And that allowed this Islamic resistance
02:03 organisation drone to get in and carry out its attack. That seems to be what has happened so far,
02:09 insofar as we've got any detail whatsoever. And we know there'll be an American response.
02:16 Joe Biden has said so explicitly. So I suppose the question now is, what's that response going
02:22 to be? Where might it be? And when? Yeah, it's one of those hold your breath moments
02:27 in the Middle East. Clearly, something is going to happen. But quite what exactly? Joe Biden under a
02:33 lot of pressure. A red line has been crossed as far as the United States has been concerned,
02:40 and its election year. So he cannot appear weak in response. He's got to do something.
02:47 The Americans say the response will be consequential, whatever that means. But,
02:53 you know, as I was just saying a moment or two ago, you know, the Iranians have made clear that
02:58 they were not involved. They don't want to get sucked into a war with the United States. The
03:03 United States doesn't want to get sucked into a war with Iran. But once they're on the same page,
03:09 but, you know, Joe Biden has got to do something. And it's got to be proportionate. It's got to be
03:17 sufficient to send out a warning that if you do this again, there's going to be a very heavy
03:23 response. But it has to be sufficiently restrained not to escalate the situation in the Middle East.
03:32 It's a very difficult balancing act. We're seeing what's happening already in Yemen with Houthis
03:38 launching rocket attacks against shipping in the Red Sea. The Americans and the British are
03:43 responding by targeting rocket launching bases inside Yemen. But it isn't stopping the Houthis
03:50 as yet. So they're continuing to launch more rocket attacks against the Houthis. You know,
03:54 that is the danger, that they could become a tit-for-tat exchange, which will allow
03:58 others to take advantage and perhaps suck the United States into this conflict,
04:05 something they most clearly do not want. That's uppermost, I think, in Joe Biden's response,
04:10 as he calculates how he should respond. But clearly a response will happen.