US president Joe Biden's administration is working to moderate a likely retaliatory strike by Israel after an Iranian missile attack on Tuesday.
The US would not support an attack by Israel on sites associated with Iran's nuclear program, Biden told reporters today. Biden reached out to fellow leaders of the G7 group of advanced democracies today "to coordinate on a response to this attack, including new sanctions," the White House said.
The US Treasury Department today imposed sanctions on two additional tankers allegedly engaged in transporting Iranian crude to China. The Gabon-flagged Izumo and the Marshall Islands-flagged Frunze allegedly also transported Russian crude in contravention of the G7 price cap on Russian exports, Treasury said.
Including today's action, the US sanctions list now totals 302 tankers and other vessels accused of facilitating Iran's oil and other commodity exports since 2019, including 68 tankers added by Treasury's sanctions enforcement arm this year. That has not succeeded in stopping the flow of Iranian crude to China, as Tehran has developed a sophisticated network of intermediaries and "shadow fleet" tankers to bypass US sanctions.
Biden, who ordered US naval and military assets in the region to shoot down Iranian missiles aimed at Israel, promptly declared Tehran's barrage of missiles to have been ineffective. The White House is holding consultations with Israel to help shape its response to the attack.
"Iran made a big mistake and it will pay for it," Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said following the Iranian attack, which came hours after Israel launched a ground invasion of Lebanon. Netanyahu referenced the aerial strikes that decapitated the leadership of the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon, noting that "the regime in Tehran does not understand our determination to defend ourselves and to exact a price from our enemies."
Tehran, in turn, said "we will respond in a more severe manner" if Israel retaliates with strikes against Iran.
The previous Iranian missile attack on Israel, in April, led to a restrained Israeli retaliation on targets inside Iran, with the US, China and other regional powers intervening to prevent a further escalation.
The Biden administration has tried to balance support for Israel's self-defense with efforts to prevent an escalation of the conflict that could engulf the world's largest oil producing region on the eve of the 5 November US presidential election.
The Iran-Israel confrontation featured at Tuesday's televised debate between the US vice-presidential candidates, but neither offered an explicit plan for how the US should respond to the Iranian attack.
The response from US lawmakers similarly fell along partisan lines, with the Democrats backing efforts by the White House to prevent further escalation, while the Republicans called for a stronger response.
Iranian "oil refineries need to be hit and hit hard because that is the source of cash for the regime to perpetrate their terror," senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) said. Graham made similar calls in April and in October 2023, at the outset of the Gaza conflict.
