On 25 February 2121, President Joe Biden personally authorized the first military operation under his watch.

U.S. military forces have conducted an airstrike against a facility on the Syrian-Iraqi border. According to Defense Secretary General Lloyd Austin III, it served as a base for Syrian Shiite militant groups, including Kait’ib Hezbollah and Kait’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada.

The strikes are in direct breach of international law and of the United Nations Charter. To justify them, the Pentagon claims that the militias are linked to the attacks the 15 to 22 February attacks against US personnel or employees of US companies in Iraq.

The targeting was very precise so as to deliver a message without provoking a military conflagration. They killed at least 17 people. The bombing came just after an appeal from Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to his Syrian counterpart Faysal Mikdad.

This US intervention would appear to be part and parcel of the Biden Administration’s talks with Iran about the region as a whole. The militias targeted constitute a junction between the Syrian and Iraqi theaters.

Unlike the Obama administration, that of President Biden would agree to make Iran the regional policeman, but refuses to see the rise of a new Persian empire that would include Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Azerbaijan. The aim would be to have Iran return to it’s position under Shah Reza Pahlevi.

Pentagon spokesman Admiral John Kirby said the attack was carried out after the Secretary of State notified a number of partners (probably the other states that President Hassan Rohani intends to incorporate in his empire project, plus Russia). However, neither the White House, nor the National Security Council, nor the Secretary of State or Defense have clarified whether the United States simply informed Russia preemptively of their attack or whether they took measures to avoid injuring Russian soldiers.