US President Joe Biden has said he does not support
any potential Israeli retaliatory strike on Iranian nuclear sites after Iran
launched around 180 missiles at Israel.
Tensions are high between Iran and Israel after the
Iranian attack on Tuesday, which Israel said was mostly repelled by its missile
defense system.
Iran said the barrage was a response to the killings
of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and
Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps commander Brig-Gen Abbas Nilforoushan.
Its attack also came after Israel announced a ground
assault into Lebanon, in an effort to dismantle what it called Iran-backed
Hezbollah's “terrorist infrastructure” in border villages.
The US has repeatedly called for de-escalation and has
also led long-running negotiations on a ceasefire between Israel and
Palestinian armed group Hamas in Gaza but so far without success.
Biden's comment to reporters on Wednesday came during
a trip to tour hurricane damage in North Carolina with Vice-President Kamala
Harris.
"Would you support an attack on Iran's nuclear
sites by Israel?" Biden was asked by a reporter.
"The answer is no," he responded.
He added that the US "will be discussing with the
Israelis what they're gonna do".
He also said that he had consulted with the leaders of
other G7 countries and they all agree that Israel "has the right to
respond, but they should respond proportionally".
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, at a
briefing, added: “It’s clear that this was an unprecedented escalation by Iran.
"Israel has the right to respond to it. We’re
having discussions about what that response will be”.
So far, the White House has given no public indication
of how it believes Israel should respond to Iran's attack.
In a video message on Tuesday, Biden said that at his
direction, US military forces in the region had helped shoot down the missiles
fired from Iran.
He said the Iranian attack had been "defeated and
ineffective", calling it "a testament to intensive planning between
the United States and Israel to anticipate and defend against the brazen attack
we expected."
"Make no mistake, the United States is fully,
fully, fully supportive of Israel," Biden added.