Jerusalem: US says it is working 'round the clock' to avoid full-scale war in Middle East, as Israel remains on high alert Tuesday to prevent Iranian retaliation over two massacres
US President Joe Biden, whose country has sent additional warships and fighter jets to the region to support Israel, held crisis talks with his national security team on Monday.
Biden and his top diplomat Antony Blinken have been trying to calm tensions that have spiked since a suspected Israeli attack in Tehran on Wednesday that killed Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.
Biden called Jordan's King Abdullah II, whose country helped shoot down an Iranian drone and missile strike against Israel in April, while Blinken called senior officials in Qatar and Egypt, key mediators in seeking a ceasefire in the 10-month Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
“We are continuing to engage in intensive diplomacy, with a simple message: we must avoid any further conflict,” Blinken said after joining other senior officials at the White House.
Iranian President Masoud Peseshkian slammed on Monday what he called Israel's “criminal acts” “against the oppressed and defenseless people of Gaza,” including the killing of Haniyeh.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran does not seek to expand the scope of wars and crises in the region, but the regime will certainly face consequences for its crimes and arrogance,” Pezeshkian said during talks with senior Russian officials visiting from abroad, according to the state news agency IRNA.
The attack, which Israel has not directly commented on, came hours after an Israeli strike in Beirut killed Fouad Shukr, a commander of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group in Lebanon.
Israel holds Shukr responsible for a rocket attack on its annexed Golan Heights that killed 12 children, calling him the “right-hand man” of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
Nasrallah is scheduled to deliver a speech on Tuesday to mark the one-week anniversary of Shukr's death.
Hezbollah has clashed with Israeli troops almost daily across the border since Hamas launched attacks on Israel in early October.
The group claimed to have carried out several attacks on Israel on Tuesday, including one using an “explosive-laden drone” to attack a military camp north of the coastal city of Agr.
In southern Lebanon, five Hezbollah fighters were killed in an Israeli attack, Lebanese security sources said.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib admitted during a visit to Cairo that “there is a possibility of war between us and Israel… We cannot deny that.”
A European diplomat in Tel Aviv said a “coordinated response” from Iran and its proxies against Israel was expected, but de-escalation efforts continued.
“That doesn’t mean there will be a simultaneous response from all sides,” he added, declining to be named as he was not authorized to speak on the matter.
“We are telling them that they need to stop playing with fire because the risk of fire is higher than it has been since October 7,” he said.
Turkey joined several governments on Monday in calling on its citizens to leave Lebanon, a stronghold of Hezbollah, while China urged increased vigilance.
Several airlines have suspended flights to Lebanon or restricted flights to daytime only.
A source from the company said that Lebanon's national carrier, Middle East Airlines, has added extra flights for those traveling to or from
The Jeddah-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation is set to meet on Wednesday at the request of “Palestine and Iran” to discuss developments in the region, an OIC official said.
UN Human Rights Secretary-General Volker Turk called on “all parties, including influential countries, to take urgent action to de-escalate this deeply destabilizing situation.”
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani and Iraqi Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein said in a joint statement Monday that they “agreed to make every effort to avoid a regional escalation.” Italy holds the rotating presidency of the G7.
The Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, triggered by a Palestinian attack on Israel on October 7, has already attracted Iranian-backed terrorist groups in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.
Hamas attacks have killed 1,197 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Palestinian militants have taken 251 hostages, 111 of whom remain held in the Gaza Strip, including 39 whom the Israeli military says are dead.
Thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv on Monday to mark the fifth birthday of kidnapped boy Ariel Bibas and demand the release of him and his family.
Israel's retaliatory military operation in the Gaza Strip has killed at least 39,653 people, according to the Hamas-controlled territory's health ministry, which did not provide details on civilian and terrorist deaths.
In the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials said Israeli forces killed eight people in two separate attacks on Tuesday.
