Inside the White House's Frenetic Scramble to Avert a Full-Blown Middle East War
WASHINGTONPresident Biden and his national-security team watched with mounting alarm on April 13 as monitors in the White House Situation Room showed 30, then 60, then over 100 Iranian ballistic missiles streaking toward Israel.
Iranian cruise missiles and a swarm of drones were already in the air, timed to arrive at the same time as the missilesa massive barrage that Biden and his aides feared could overwhelm the strengthened defenses they and Israel had spent more than a week preparing.
The scale of Tehrans first-ever direct attack on Israel matched U.S. spy agencies worst-case scenarios, U.S. officials said later. It threatened not only a close U.S. ally, but Bidens hopes of preventing a six-month Middle East crisis from widening into an all-out regional war.
Assembling in the Situation Room at 5:15 p.m. that Saturday, Biden and his aides couldnt be sure that Israels antimissile systems, reinforced by the U.S. militarys antimissile and counterdrone deployments in the previous 10 days, would block nearly 99% of Irans salvo.
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