Joe Biden must warn Iran that the US will join a “devastating” response if Israel is attacked, Republicans have said. 

The US president is under pressure to provide a public security guarantee to Israel, the day after he said America’s commitment to the country was “iron-clad”.

Ayatollah Khamenei, the Iranian Supreme Leader, has threatened to attack Israel directly in response to a suspected Israeli strike on an embassy building in Damascus earlier this month. US officials believe the strike is “imminent”, and Israel has pledged to respond in kind.

Tom Cotton, a Republican senator from Arkansas, said: “Israel is under threat of imminent attack by Iran. President Biden needs to warn the ayatollahs immediately that the United States will back Israel to the hilt and the joint American-Israeli retaliation for any attack will be swift and devastating.”

Marco Rubio, who is the vice-chair of the Senate’s Intelligence Committee, said that Iran’s threats to attack Israeli soil had created “the most dangerous Middle East moment since 1973”.

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