As President Joe Biden and his national security team met in the Situation Room at the White House on Saturday evening, watching in real time as hundreds of Iranian missiles and drones headed towards Israel, they received a message from Tehran. Through the Swiss, who serve as an intermediary since the U.S. and Iran have no diplomatic relations, the Iranians sent word "basically suggesting that they were finished after this," a senior administration official said on Sunday.
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00:00 Over the weekend as you know Iran launched hundreds of missiles and drones against Israel.
00:05 This was an attack
00:07 unprecedented in its scope and in its scale. In its scope because it represented the first
00:13 direct attack by Iran on Israel and it scaled because as I said there were more than 300
00:21 munitions fired including ballistic missiles as well as land-attack cruise missiles and drones.
00:28 Thanks to
00:30 Israeli air defenses as well as support from other countries including US military assets
00:36 virtually all of the incoming projectiles
00:39 were destroyed and shot down. As President Biden underscored to Prime Minister Netanyahu the US is committed
00:46 committed to Israel's defense.
00:49 And I think what this weekend demonstrated is that Israel did not have to and does not have to
00:58 defend itself alone when it is the victim of an aggression the victim of an attack.
01:02 In the 36 hours since we have been coordinating a diplomatic response to seek to prevent escalation.
01:11 Strength and wisdom need to be same the same sides the different sides of the same coin.
01:17 I've been in close communication with counterparts in the region and
01:21 we will continue to do so in the hours and days ahead.
01:27 We don't seek escalation, but we'll continue to support the defense of Israel and to protect our personnel.