The White House expressed concern on Wednesday that the risk of a wider war breaking out in the Middle East has increased after threats of retaliation against Israel following the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniya in Iran.
However, speaking to reporters at a daily briefing, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Washington does not view a full-blown conflict in the region as imminent or inevitable and is working to prevent that from happening.
He said the US still believes there is a “viable” process to reach a ceasefire agreement to end more than nine months of fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, although there are concerns that the effort has suffered a serious setback.
Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards confirmed the death of Haniyeh, who took part in internationally brokered indirect talks to reach a ceasefire in the Palestinian territory. The Guards said the incident came hours after he attended the swearing-in ceremony of Iran’s new president.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government made no mention of Haniyeh’s killing in a televised statement Wednesday evening, but said Israel had recently dealt heavy blows to Iranian proxy groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah, and would respond forcefully to any attack.
The killing comes less than 24 hours after Israel claimed to have assassinated Hezbollah’s most senior military commander in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, in retaliation for a deadly rocket attack on the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Concerns about increasing stress
“We don’t want to see an escalation of tensions,” Kirby told reporters. “These risks wax and wane every day. They’re certainly elevated right now. That doesn’t make the task of de-escalation, prevention and deterrence any less complex — which is the goal.”
However, Kirby cited comments by Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The supreme leader said Israel had laid the groundwork for “severe punishment for itself” and that Tehran had a duty to avenge Haniyeh’s death.
Iranian forces have previously carried out direct attacks on Israel during the Gaza war, which began with a Hamas-led cross-border attack on Israel on October 7.
Kirby declined to say whether the United States was urging Israel to exercise restraint, except to say: “We are working hard to prevent this war from escalating.”
While the latest developments appear to have adversely impacted the prospect of an imminent ceasefire agreement in Gaza, Kirby said: “We have seen no indications … that the process has been completely disrupted.”
“We still believe the agreement that is being proposed is worth pursuing,” he said.
At an event in Singapore, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken dodged a question on Haniyeh’s killing, saying a ceasefire agreement in Gaza was vital to avoiding a wider regional conflict. He told Channel News Asia that the US was neither aware of the killing nor involved in it.
Blinken spoke by phone with the leaders of Jordan and Qatar and the State Department said they discussed regional tensions and efforts for a Gaza ceasefire.
US State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters that after the recent attacks in the Middle East, America will take all possible measures to protect its personnel and interests there.
The US urged its citizens not to travel to Lebanon, citing rising tensions between Israel and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah group.
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