U.S. To Iran: "Stop Being World’s Largest Exporter Of Terrorism"

The United States on Monday urged Iran to 'stop being the world’s largest exporter of terrorism' If the regime in Tehran is truly interested in peace and stability, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

"That would be a great starting point," State Department's Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel told a daily press briefing.

Amid the weekend strikes on Iran-linked targets in Syria and Iraq, which served as punishment after the killing of 3 U.S. service members in Jordan, the Biden administration made it clear that it doesn’t want a direct war with Iran.

But its messaging has fueled speculation that attacks on the Islamic Republic’s sovereign territory could come at some point.  Some critics, especially Republicans in the U.S. congress argue that it’s time Tehran feels some direct pain.

When asked by TURAN about the administration's strategy as well as the impacts of last weekend's strikes, Patel told a daily briefing that Washington's goal was about holding these Iran-aligned malign proxy groups accountable.

"And so what these strikes were on Friday, you saw the United States conduct strikes on more than 85 locations at 75 facilities in Iraq and Syria.  Three were in Iraq and four were in Syria, and these locations were used by the IRGC and affiliated militias to attack U.S. forces," he said.

He went on to elaborate: "These locations were carefully selected, and there is clear and irrefutable evidence that the facilities targeted were used by groups and individuals directly involved in the attacks on the Americans.  They included command and control centers, rocket, missile, and drone storage facilities, and other things of that nature and which we have credible information to believe that they were directly involved in the attacks on American personnel."