JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. – President Joe Biden said Wednesday he will not support an Israeli strike on sites related to Tehran’s nuclear program in response to Iran’s missile attack on Israel.
“The answer is no,” Biden told reporters when asked if he would support such retaliation after Iran fired about 180 missiles at Israel on Tuesday.
Biden’s comments came after he and fellow Group of Seven leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom spoke by telephone about coordinating new sanctions against Iran.
The White House said in a statement that the leaders “unequivocally condemned Iran’s attack against Israel” and that Biden reaffirmed America’s “full solidarity and support to Israel and its people.”
Biden added that “there are things that have to be done” in response to the Iranian barrage. He said he expected sanctions from the G7 nations to be announced soon.
“We will be discussing with the Israelis what they are going to do,” Biden told reporters before heading to the Carolinas to see the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene. “All seven of us agree that they have a right to respond.”
The office of Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said in a statement that the leaders expressed “strong concern for the escalation of these last hours” and emphasized that “a conflict on a regional scale is in no one’s interest.” Italy holds the rotating presidency of the G7 group of industrialized democracies.
Biden said that he planned to speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “relatively soon.”
Biden’s administration has signaled that it is urging Israel to display restraint in how it responds to Iran’s missile attack, which Biden said was “ineffective and defeated.”
Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said there “must be a return message” to Iran. He said the U.S. and Israel officials continue to discuss their response.
“At the same time, I think we recognize as important as the response of some kind should be, there is a recognition that the region is really balancing on a knife’s edge,” Campbell said at forum hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington think tank.
The U.S. helped Israel defend against the attack that Iran carried out in retaliation for the killing of Tehran-backed leaders of Lebanese Hezbollah.
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Associated Press writer Colleen Barry in Rome and White House Correspondent Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.
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