A top official of the US presidency said yesterday on Sunday that Washington does not rule out the option of hitting Iran, declaring again, during an interview he gave to a television network, that more US retaliatory strikes against factions close to the Islamic Republic, for the attack on a base support in Jordan which resulted in the killing of three members of the armed forces, are imminent.

“There will be further action in response (…) to the tragic death of three brave members of the (armed forces) of the United States,” the White House national security adviser said during an interview on the network’s “This Week” ABC News.

“We have to prepare for every eventuality,” he continued. “I would simply say, as far as Tehran is concerned, that if it chooses to retaliate directly against the US, there will be (…) a strong response from us,” he added, according to a report by the New York Daily News, which relays the German Agency.

His remarks came a day after the third joint military operation by the US and Britain against the Houthi rebels in Yemen and two days after bombings on the territory of Syria and Iraq against elite members of the Iranian army and armed groups close to Tehran.

When pressed to say what Washington will do about Iran in a second interview yesterday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Mr. Sullivan said gruffly that ”I’m not going to get into what we’ve excluded and what we haven’t. military operations perspective,” adding that “the president is determined to respond forcefully to attacks on our people” even though he “does not seek a wider war in the Middle East,” which concerns are intensifying against the backdrop of the Israel/Hamas war in the Strip Gaza from October 7.

Foreign policy hawks in Republican ranks insist on demanding US strikes on Iran. “We should not seek appeasement of Iran,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said on the same NBC show. “This is what the Biden administration has been doing for three years. We are showing weakness on the world stage.” He called for Washington to crush “Iran’s central bank,” among other things.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, considered to be in the inner circle of presidential candidate Donald Trump, is the loudest voice in the chorus calling for military action against Tehran. “If the goal is to deter Iran, we’re failing,” he told Fox News yesterday. “If the goal is to protect American troops, it is not being achieved,” he insisted. President Biden does not need congressional approval to order strikes against Iran, he ruled. “He has jurisdiction (…) to protect the troops in the field,” he assured.