WASHINGTON

US Sen. Jack Reed criticized Israel’s airstrikes on Iran, calling the move a “reckless escalation” that threatens to further destabilize the region.

"Israel’s alarming decision to launch airstrikes on Iran is a reckless escalation that risks igniting regional violence," Reed said Thursday in a statement.

Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the strikes threaten not only the lives of innocent civilians but the stability of the entire Middle East and the safety of American citizens and forces.

"While tensions between Israel and Iran are real and complex, military aggression of this scale is never the answer," he said, urging both sides to show "immediate restraint."

He also called on President Donald Trump to press for diplomatic de-escalation before the crisis spirals further out of control.

The statement came after Israel launched a sweeping military operation against Iran on Friday, with strikes targeting its nuclear program and long-range missile capabilities.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech posted on YouTube that his forces struck the "heart of Iran's nuclear enrichment program. We struck at the heart of Iran's nuclear weaponization program."

Netanyahu described the attacks as a "targeted military operation to roll back the Iranian threat to Israel's very survival."

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Israel took "unilateral action" against Iran.

"We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region. Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for its self-defense," he added.

Sen. Chris Murphy said Israel's attack on Iran "clearly intended to scuttle" the Trump administration's negotiations with Iran and risks a regional war that will "likely be catastrophic" for America.

"Iran would not be this close to possessing a nuclear weapon if Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu had not forced America out of the nuclear agreement with Iran that brought Europe, Russia and China together behind the United States to successfully contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

"This is a disaster of Trump and Netanyahu's own making, and now the region risks spiraling toward a new, deadly conflict," added Murphy, who is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

A war between Israel and Iran "may be good" for Netanyahu’s domestic politics, but it will "likely be disastrous" for both the security of Israel, the US and the rest of the region, he noted.

The senator reiterated that the US was not involved in the strikes, saying, "and we have no obligation to follow Israel into a war we did not ask for and will make us less safe."