Iran rejects involvement in deadly strike on US forces
Xinhua | Updated: 2024-01-29 21:00
TEHRAN -- Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani on Monday rejected the country's involvement in a drone attack targeting US forces in Jordan, saying the accusation is "baseless and provocative."
Kanaani made the remarks in a statement published on the Iranian Foreign Ministry's website while reacting to the claim by US President Joe Biden on Sunday that "Iran-backed" groups operating in Syria and Iraq had carried out the attack on US forces in northeast Jordan near the Syrian border earlier in the day, which killed three American soldiers and injured at least 25 others.
The spokesman said Iran had, ever since the onset of the ongoing crisis in Gaza, repeatedly warned against the danger of the expansion of the conflict in the region due to the continuation of Israeli attacks against Palestinians and US all-out support for the killing of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
Iran maintained that the constant and frequent violations of the national sovereignty of Iraq and Syria by the US troops and their bombardments and attacks against the groups and people of Iraq, Syria and Yemen would intensify instability in the region, added Kanaani.
Kanaani emphasized that resistance groups in the region did not take orders from Iran for their decisions and moves. Iran did not welcome the expansion of the conflict in the region, and it did not interfere in the resistance groups' decisions on how to support Palestinians or defend themselves and their people against any aggression or occupation, said the spokesman.
He said that ending Israeli strikes against the coastal enclave and reaching an immediate ceasefire could prepare the ground for the restoration of peace to the region.
Kanaani stressed that hurling such a "baseless accusation at Iran was a projection and a conspiracy by those who see their interests in dragging the United States into a fresh battle in the region and provoking Washington to expand and escalate the crisis in a bid to cover up their problems."
On Sunday, Iran's mission to the United Nations also said Tehran had no links to the attacks on US forces in Jordan, adding that the incident was part of the "conflict between the US army and resistance groups in the region, which reciprocate retaliatory attacks."
US troops in Syria and Iraq have frequently come under attack by resistance groups in the region since the Israel-Hamas conflict broke out on Oct 7, 2023.
