Top US general says risk of broader war ‘somewhat’ abated after Israel-Hezbollah clash

The near-term risk of a broader war in the Middle East has eased somewhat after Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah exchanged fire without further escalation but Iran still poses a significant danger as it weighs a strike on Israel, America’s top general says.

Air Force General C.Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaks to Reuters after emerging from a three-day trip to the Middle East that saw him fly into Israel just hours after Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel, and the IDF said it struck hundreds of Hezbollah rocket launchers in Lebanon to thwart a larger attack. It was one of the biggest clashes in more than 10 months since Hezbollah began attacking northern Israel following Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, but it also ended with limited damage in Israel and without immediate threats of more retaliation from either side.

Brown notes Hezbollah’s strike was just one of two major threatened attacks against Israel that emerged in recent weeks. Iran is also threatening an attack over the killing of a Hamas leader in Tehran last month.

Asked if the immediate risk of a regional war had declined, Brown says: “Somewhat, yes.”

“You had two things you knew were going to happen. One’s already happened. Now it depends on how the second is going to play out,” Brown says while flying out of Israel.

“How Iran responds will dictate how Israel responds, which will dictate whether there is going to be a broader conflict or not.”

Brown also cautions that there is also the risk posed by Iran’s militant allies in places such as Iraq, Syria and Jordan who have attacked US troops as well as Yemen’s Houthis, who have targeted Red Sea shipping and even fired drones at Israel.

“And do these others actually go off and do things on their own because they’re not satisfied – the Houthis in particular,” Brown says, calling the Shia group the “wild card.”