Washington, DC [US], October 26 : Responding to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, accusing the US of "directing" the ongoing Israeli strikes in Gaza, followimg the October 7 Hamas terror attacks, President Joe Biden said the US has had troops in the region since 9/11 to go after ISIS, and it had nothing to do with Israel.
President Biden made the remarks at a joint briefing with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday.
"We have had troops in the region since 911 to go after ISIS and prevent its reemergence in the region, having nothing to do with Israel at all," Biden said.
He warned the Ayatollah that if Iran continued to "move against those troops", the US would respond.
"My warning to the Ayatollah was that if they continue to move against those troops, we will respond, and he should be prepared. It has nothing to do with Israel," the US President added.
Earlier on Wednesday, Iran's supreme leader accused the US of "directing" strikes that Israel has been carrying out on Hamas in Gaza in retaliation to the October 7 terror attacks, The Times of Israel reported.
"America is a definite accomplice of criminals," Khamenei said in an address in Tehran, adding, "The United States is in some way directing the crime that is being committed in Gaza."
The Ayatollah alleged that the hands of Americans "were tainted with the blood of the oppressed, children, patients, women and others".
"Let everyone know that in this matter and future matters, the Palestinian nation is victorious and the future world is the world of Palestine, not the world of the Zionist regime," Khamenei stated, according to The Times of Israel.
The US has moved two aircraft carriers into the eastern Mediterranean in a move, that it said was to deter Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah, both allies of Hamas, from getting involved in the Israel-Hamas war, The Times of Israel reported.
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