Iran has told the United States through intermediaries that any strike on its own soil would cross a red line and provoke reprisals on American targets in the region, according to a report.
The grim warning came as the world holds its breath to see how Joe Biden will respond to the killing of three U.S. soldiers by Iranian-backed militias.
Biden on Tuesday said he had already made his decision regarding reprisals for the deaths on Sunday - but did not disclose what it was.
He spent Monday sequestered with his military and national security advisers weighing up a range of options drawn up and debated over decades: among them striking Iranian assets in the Persian Gulf; taking on Iran-backed militias in Syria and Iraq; launching a cyberattack and - the most fraught option - launching strikes on Iranian territory, to take out commanders and key military sites.
On Tuesday, The Guardian reported that Tehran has told Washington via intermediaries that if it strikes Iranian territory directly, Tehran will itself hit back at American assets in the Middle East.
Biden and his team have insisted the U.S. is trying to avoid escalation, and the president does not want another war to deal with - especially in an election year.
'I don't think we need a wider war in the Middle East, that's not what I'm looking for,' he said on Tuesday at the White House.
Pressed about concerns raised by his own administration about the risks of escalation, the president replied: 'We'll see.'
Administration officials are saying that the reprisals will be carried out over time, in a series of strikes.
A U.S. official told ABC News the strikes will be carried out 'over the course of several days', and hit 'multiple targets.'
The official would not specify if the targets are inside or outside of Iran, but added: 'These are going to be very deliberate targets - deliberate strikes on facilities that enabled these attacks' on U.S. forces.
There have been over 160 attacks launched by Iranian-backed militias on U.S. targets in Iraq, Syria and Jordan since the October 7 terror attack.
The various militia groups, which call themselves the 'Axis of Resistance', say they are attacking the U.S. to force them to end their support for Israel's war in Gaza. Analysts say Iran is simply taking advantage of the chaos.
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran's foreign minister, said he felt Iran was winning people over to its way of thinking.
He said the White House knew well that 'a political solution' was required to end the horrors in the Gaza Strip and the wider issues in the Middle East.
'Diplomacy is moving forward on this path,' he said. 'Benjamin Netanyahu is nearing the end of his criminal political life.'
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