National Iranian American Council (NIAC) president Jamal Abdi has commented on Tehran’s major drone and missile attack on Israel on Saturday night.

NIAC has worked to improve US-Iran relations and spent years pushing for increased diplomacy.

We are deeply concerned that Iranian retaliatory strikes following Israel’s April 1 attack on its diplomatic compound in Damascus will move the region even further from the path to peace and security. The launch of a significant attack on Israeli territory from Iran is without recent precedent and, unless there is a serious effort towards deconfliction, may confirm that Iran, Israel and the United States are in the midst of the regional war that so many have feared.

We call on the Biden Administration to exercise the United States’ considerable diplomatic leverage to restrain Israel and Iran to ensure this conflict does not spiral further out of control. Far too many innocents have already suffered in the war that began October 7, and the cycle of violence and inhumanity must be broken. Preventing a regional war must be the top imperative and this may mean that Joe Biden must finally say “no” to Israel and Netanyahu.

Biden’s bearhug approach towards Israel has completely failed and has put the U.S. at the risk of entering a war of choice – Netanyahu’s choice. Israel launched a military attack on a diplomatic compound, violating international law and all but guaranteeing an Iranian response. The Israelis notably did not warn the United States, even though it put U.S. troops in harm’s way, and still faced no consequences from the Biden Administration. Netanyahu appears eager to extend and expand the disastrous war in Gaza and draw the U.S. into a regional war and, by continually abetting the war and enabling Israel’s worst instincts, Biden may have granted Netanyahu’s wish.

Read the rest of Abdi’s statement here.