Israel said to ask US to deter Iran from retaliating for Nasrallah assassination
Pentagon chief assures Gallant the US supports Israel’s right to self-defense, ‘remains postured to defend its forces in the region,’ as Tehran vows revenge for Beirut strike
Israel has reportedly asked the United States to take measures to deter Iran from launching an attack in response to the airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps general on Friday, while US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin assured Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Saturday that Washington supports Jerusalem’s right to defend itself.
A US official told the Axios news site that Washington will now work toward a diplomatic solution to prevent an Israeli ground invasion in Lebanon and Iranian involvement in the ongoing conflict, which follows almost a year of cross-border attacks by Hezbollah on northern Israel.
The report also addressed claims from US officials on Saturday that Israel had launched the massive strike that killed Nasrallah in the Dahiyeh suburb of Beirut without giving Washington advance notice.
“Nasrallah was a bad guy, but it is frustrating that the Israelis are doing this without consulting us and then ask that we clean up when it comes to deterring Iran,” one US official was quoted as saying.
Some reports in Hebrew media had indicated on Friday there was anger in Washington at Israel for carrying out the strike while the Americans were attempting to secure a Lebanon ceasefire agreement.
Channel 12 news reported Saturday that the US was angry when news of the strike emerged because it had been engaging with Israel on the specifics of a ceasefire over the course of the week and felt it had been misled.
The strike culminated what the report said was being described in Israeli defense circles as “the 10 days of attacks” — starting with the detonation on September 17 of thousands of pagers held by Hezbollah members, for which Israel has not claimed responsibility.
The report noted that even as the Israeli leadership was deciding whether to carry out the strike on Nasrallah, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, was simultaneously engaging with the Biden administration on a potential ceasefire in Lebanon. Dermer was finalizing the details of the proposal with the Americans — and it was announced by the US and France on Thursday.
This explained the palpable American anger on Friday after word of the strike on Nasrallah first emerged, the TV station’s diplomatic correspondent Dana Weiss said. “From their point of view, they were played.”
A US official told The Times of Israel on Friday that Israel only notified Washington about the airstrike targeting Nasrallah after its planes were already in the air and the operation was in motion.
Another US official quoted in the Axios report on Saturday echoed statements from President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris that “Nasrallah has blood on his hands,” but said that Washington was not convinced that Israel’s “whack-a-mole” approach would address wider regional tensions.
Biden on Saturday welcomed Israel’s assassination of Nasrallah as bringing a “measure of justice” for his many victims but called for diplomatic agreements to end the fighting in Lebanon and Gaza.
Hezbollah is a US-designated terror organization, which Biden said was responsible for “killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade reign of terror.”
He also stressed that the Friday strike on Hezbollah’s headquarters in Beirut was a response to the Lebanon-based terror group’s decision to open up a “northern front” against Israel after Hamas’s October 7 onslaught.
“The United States fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself against Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and any other Iranian-supported terrorist groups,” Biden said, adding that he had directed his defense secretary on Friday to bolster the US military’s force posture in the Middle East to deter Iran from further escalation.
For her part, Harris echoed Biden’s sentiment that Nasrallah’s killing brought a measure of justice for “countless innocent people in Lebanon, Israel, Syria, and around the world,” while stressing, “Diplomacy remains the best path forward to protect civilians and achieve lasting stability in the region.”
The Pentagon said Austin told Gallant in a phone call Saturday that the US “remains postured to defend its forces and facilities in the region and committed to the defense of Israel.”
Notably, the Pentagon statement on the call did not mention the ceasefire in Lebanon that Biden has repeatedly urged.
Former president Donald Trump’s son-in-law and ex-White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, on the other hand, said on Saturday that Israel must be allowed to finish off Hezbollah after assassinating Nasrallah, rejecting the Biden administration’s calls for a ceasefire.
“Anyone who has been calling for a ceasefire in the north is wrong. There is no going back for Israel. They cannot afford now to not finish the job and completely dismantle the arsenal that has been aimed at them. They will never get another chance,” Kushner tweeted in rare public comments, which were quickly retweeted by former ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who is likely to seek a spot in the administration, as well as Wyoming Senator John Barrosso, senior Fox News analyst Brit Hume, and other influential pro-Trump voices.
Following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July, which was blamed on Israel, Iran threatened a response.
To deter Iran, the US rushed forces to the Middle East and passed along messages through diplomatic channels seriously warning Iran against carrying out such an attack. The US was also part of a coalition that helped Israel to almost completely thwart Iran’s unprecedented launch of some 300 missiles and drones at the Jewish state in April.
In response to Nasrallah’s killing, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was transferred to a secure location inside the country with heightened security measures in place, two regional officials briefed by Tehran told Reuters on Saturday
Iranian state media reported that Khamenei made a statement calling on Muslims “to stand by the people of Lebanon and the proud Hezbollah with whatever means they have and assist them in confronting the… wicked regime [of Israel].”
“The blood of the martyr shall not go unavenged,” Khamenei said in the statement as he announced five days of mourning to mark Nasrallah’s death, which came at the end of an intense week of Israeli strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in which the IDF killed the vast majority of the terrorist organization’s top leadership.
Following the assassination, the US Department of State ordered some employees at its embassy in Beirut and their eligible family members on Saturday to leave Lebanon.
The Beirut strike that killed Nasrallah came as part of Israel’s campaign to allow 60,000 residents of northern Israel, displaced since Hezbollah began attacking the country on October 8, to return to their homes safely.
The US, France, and some of their allies have called for an immediate 21-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah and expressed support for a truce in Gaza, where 97 Israelis abducted by Hamas on October 7 are still held hostage.
Hezbollah is barred by UN Security Council Resolution 1701 from maintaining a military presence south of the Litani River, which runs some 29 kilometers (18 miles) north of the Israel-Lebanon border. The Shiite terror group has blatantly violated that resolution and regularly launches attacks on Israel from near the border.
Israel repeatedly warned that it could no longer tolerate Hezbollah’s presence along its border following Hamas’s October 7 atrocities, and warned that should a diplomatic solution not be reached, it would turn to military action to push the terror group northward.
Jacob Magid and Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.
