American naval forces helped Israel shoot down many of the approximately 180 incoming Iranian missiles on Tuesday evening, a shoulder-to-shoulder demonstration of military prowess that rendered the attack on Israeli cities “defeated and ineffective,” President Biden said.
“Make no mistake, the United States is fully, fully, fully supportive of Israel,” Mr. Biden told reporters hours after the attack.
Two U.S. naval destroyers based in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the U.S.S. Bulkeley and the U.S.S. Cole, launched a dozen interceptors against the Iranian missiles, said Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder, the Pentagon’s press secretary. None of the 40,000 American troops in the region were hurt in the attacks, he added.
Jake Sullivan, the president’s national security adviser, said there had been “meticulous joint planning” between U.S. forces and their Israeli counterparts in anticipation of possible Iranian military action. That followed Mr. Biden’s recent vow to do everything in his power to help defend Israel against potential attacks from its adversaries.
Mr. Sullivan declined to say whether the United States would participate in a possible Israeli counter-strike against Iran. In April, when the United States helped Israel defeat a similar attack by Iran, Mr. Biden told the Israeli government that he would not authorize the use of American forces in a direct strike at Iran, and urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to “take the win.”
After the missile attacks on Tuesday, Mr. Netanyahu made it clear that the Israeli military would respond at a time of its choosing. “The regime in Iran does not understand our determination to defend ourselves and to retaliate against our enemies,” he said in a video message after the attacks.
For months, relations between Mr. Biden and Mr. Netanyahu have been strained as the president failed to restrain Israel’s military actions in Gaza following the Oct. 7 attacks led by Hamas that killed 1,200 people. Last month, American officials appeared caught off guard by Mr. Netanyahu’s decision to approve the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s longtime leader, the day after the United States and a dozen other countries called for a cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon.
The tension between two leaders has deepened as Israel has marched ahead with aggressive military action that threatens to escalate into a full-scale, destabilizing war in the Middle East. Last week, American officials privately expressed frustration that Israel had rebuffed the cease-fire proposals.
But there was little evidence of disagreement on Tuesday as Mr. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris gathered in the Situation Room at the White House to monitor the attack by Iran.
Mr. Sullivan later told reporters that the United States intended to ensure that “there will be consequences, severe consequences for this attack” by Iran. He declined to say what those consequences would be. But he said that members of the Biden administration would engage in discussions with their Israeli counterparts throughout the next 24 hours. One item of discussion will be whether Israel should retaliate against Iran for the missile attacks.
“Obviously, this is a significant escalation by Iran,” he said.
Matthew Miller, the State Department spokesman, said on Tuesday that there had been no warning from Tehran ahead of the missile attack. Asked whether Israel was dragging the United States into a war, Mr. Miller said that “Israel makes its own decisions” and that “the United States has to make its own decisions about our national interests.”
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