President Biden said Friday that he does not believe the United States is in a proxy war with Iran following attacks on Yemen's Houthi rebels.
During a stop at a small business in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Biden was asked if the U.S. was fighting a proxy war and simply answered, “No.”
He said the airstrikes carried out in coordination with U.S. allies against the Iranian-backed Houthis late Thursday were successful and that he believed there were no civilian casualties.
“If the Houthis continue this outrageous act, we will definitely respond with our allies,” the president said.
The United States and Britain on Thursday bombed more than a dozen locations in Yemen used by the Iranian-backed Houthis. Biden said in a statement after the report that the action was taken “in direct response to the unprecedented Houthi attack” threatening U.S. military personnel, civilians, and regional trade in the Red Sea.
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White House Press Secretary John Kirby said Biden made the decision to authorize the attack following Tuesday's attack. Kirby said the president convened his national security team that afternoon and was presented with response options, which he approved “at that time.”
Kirby added that the White House is “very comfortable and confident in the legal authority that the president has used to carry out these attacks.”
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