White House Admits President Biden Sent Message to Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei

JAKARTA - President Joe Biden has sent a rare message to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warning Tehran against targeting United States personnel in the Middle East, the White House said Thursday, after a series of attacks on American troops in the region.

"There was a direct message conveyed," said White House spokesman John Kirby at a press conference, but declined to explain further, as reported by Reuters, October 27.

Regarding this, Iran's UN mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, US officials want to avoid a wider conflict in the Middle East, following the Hamas militant group's attack on Israel on October 7 that killed at least 1,400 people, mostly civilians.

About 900 additional US troops are heading to the region or have recently arrived there, to beef up air defenses to protect US personnel amid increasing attacks in the region by Iran-affiliated groups, the Pentagon said.

According to the Pentagon, United States forces have been attacked at least 12 times in Iraq and four times in Syria in the past week, he added.

On Wednesday, President Biden said he had warned Ayatollah Khamenei that Washington would respond if American troops continued to be targeted, but did not say how the message was communicated.

"My warning to the Ayatollah is, if they continue to move against these forces, we will retaliate, and he must be prepared. This has nothing to do with Israel," he told reporters.

In comments posted on social media before Kirby spoke, an aide to Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi disputed Biden's remarks.

"The US messages were not directed at our leader and were not a request from the Iranian side. If Biden thinks he has warned Iran, he should ask his team to show him the texts of the messages," wrote Mohammad Jamshidi.

Separately, Iran's IRNA news agency quoted an unnamed source as saying the United States had sent a message to Iran, as well as some of Tehran's allies, such as Lebanon's Hezbollah, saying it was not trying to expand the war and urging them to exercise restraint.

"The United States cannot send military equipment to the Israeli regime and take over the management of the war with one hand, while issuing political messages with the other, and talking about its rejection of the expansion of the war," IRNA reported, citing unnamed sources as saying. said, adding that Iran's allies "act independently and are not subject to Tehran's orders."

As previously reported, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian on Thursday said at the UN that if Israel's retaliation against Palestinian militants Hamas in the Gaza Strip does not end, the United States could be affected.