Biden lauds ‘remarkable’ Israeli defense against Iran, said to oppose military response

The United States helped Israel take out almost all of the around 300 drones and missiles fired at it in a “unprecedented attack” from Iran, US President Joe Biden said early Sunday, amid reported fears in Washington that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will try to pull the Americans into wider regional conflict. US military aircraft and ballistic missile defense destroyers that were moved to the region over the past week assisted Israeli air defense systems in intercepting a large wave of drones and missiles launched toward the country from Iran late Saturday. “Thanks to these deployments and the extraordinary skill of our service members, we helped Israel take down nearly all of the incoming drones and missiles,” Biden said. “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,” Biden’s office said in a statement describing his call with Netanyahu shortly after the attack. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in a statement condemned the “reckless” strikes, which he said “risk inflaming tensions and destabilizing the region. Iran has once again demonstrated that it is intent on sowing chaos in its own backyard.” The European Union’s foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, condemned the strikes as “an unprecedented escalation and a grave threat to regional security” in a message on X. News outlet Axios reported that Biden had told Netanyahu he would oppose any Israeli counterattack against Iran, that the US would not join any such attack, and that the prime minister should “take the win.” “You got a win. Take the win,” Biden told Netanyahu, according to a White House official quoted in the Axios report.