OAN’s Brooke Mallory
4:30 PM – Tuesday, April 16, 2024
On Monday, John Kirby, the White House’s national security communications adviser, refuted claims and reports that Iranian officials had given the U.S. advance information on the date and intended targets of their assault against Israel over the weekend.
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“This whole narrative out there that Iran passed us a message with what they were gonna do is ridiculous,” Kirby said.
Kirby informed reporters that Iran’s attempt to attack Israel on Saturday, in which it fired hundreds of missiles and drones in retaliation for a strike on Iranian property in Syria, had failed.
He stated that Israel and its allies were able to intercept the majority of the missiles, and Kirby also asserted that the U.S. was not informed beforehand about the timeline or targets involved.
However, according to Reuters, Iran told diplomats from Turkey, Jordan, and Iraq to give extensive notice days before it launched its strike. All three of those countries are allies of the U.S.
“All I’m telling you is it’s nonsense,” he reiterated. “Can you imagine a world in which Iran would pick up the phone and say, ‘We’re about to try to shwack Israel with 300 cruise missiles and drones, we just wanted to let you know it’s coming, and, oh, by the way, here’s what we’re going to hit… I’m sorry, it just didn’t happen. I can’t account for what sources might be telling you about what they heard. I’m telling you what we heard.”
Without going into specifics, Kirby did admit that the United States received a message from Iran and that Iran received messages from the U.S. However, he adamantly emphasized that none of these messages related to the details of Iran’s attack over the weekend.
“Together with our partners, we defeated that attack!” Biden stated during a Monday meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.
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