The Hill reports that U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday made his first comments on the recent airstrikes that the United States carried out in Syria, and, according to Biden, the United States is not looking to go to war with Iran. 

Biden commented on the matter during a press conference that he held with Canadian prime Minister Justin Trudeau, during his recent trip to Ottawa, where Biden gave a speech before the Canadian Parliament.

"To make no mistake, the United States does not — does not, emphasize — seek conflict with Iran, but be prepared for us to act forcefully to protect our people. That’s exactly what happened last night," Biden said.

"We’re going to continue to keep up our efforts to counterterrorist threats in the region in partnerships with Canada and other members of the coalition to defeat ISIS," Biden added.

Background

On Thursday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps launched a deadly drone strike on a coalition base.

Fox News reported:

The Defense Department said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps crashed a UAV into a building near Hasakah in northeast Syria at approximately 1:38 p.m. local time, leaving one U.S. contractor dead. The attack also wounded five U.S. service members and another U.S. contractor.

U.S. intelligence subsequently determined that the UAV was of Iranian origin.

The U.S. military, under Biden's leadership, responded to the attack with multiple retaliatory airstrikes that killed at least eight Iranian-linked forces. This was not the end of the matter, though.

Iran proxy forces, according to a separate report from Fox News, responded, on Friday, with retaliatory attacks of their own on a U.S. base in Northeast Syria. It is not clear if any U.S. casualties resulted from these attacks.

"We don't seek escalation with Iran"

Just like Biden, the Pentagon has indicated that the U.S. does not seek conflict with Iran.

A Pentagon spokesman said:

We don’t see escalation with Iran. But the strikes that we took last night were intended to send a very clear message that we will take the protection of our personnel seriously and that we will respond quickly and decisively if they’re threatened.

Biden and his administration are now receiving significant criticism for this whole situation.

The general criticism is that Biden and his administration, through its policies, speech, and actions, have weakened the United States thereby making it more vulnerable to its enemies. Some, to support this argument, have pointed to the fact that Iran-back attacks have significantly increased since Biden took office.

There does appear to be substantial merit to this criticism.