DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Delaware, USA (AP) US President Joe Biden said Sunday that he will speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and believes that an all-out war in the Middle East must be avoided.
It has to be, Biden told reporters as he boarded the presidential plane to Washington. We really have to avoid it.
The same day, Israeli airstrikes across Lebanon killed dozens of people. The president did not say when he planned to speak with Netanyahu.
The Iranian-backed political-paramilitary group Hezbollah suffered a series of deadly blows to its command structure, including the assassination of its general leader, Hassan Nasrallah, part of a series of increasingly daring Israeli attacks against objective of undermining the offensive capabilities of the group against its territory.
Tens of thousands of Israelis and Lebanese living near the border between the two countries have been forced to evacuate after Hezbollah has launched rockets almost daily in the direction of Israel for the past 11 months, to which the Israeli government has responded with his own offensive.
Faced with this large number of displaced people on both sides of the border, Washington has tried to present a negotiated resolution that would allow them to return home and avoid a broader regional conflict.
Earlier on Sunday, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Israel has destroyed Hezbollah’s command structure with a series of airstrikes that claimed the lives of Nasrallah and several other leaders of the group.
But Kirby warned that Hezbollah would work to regroup quickly.
“I think people are safer now that he’s gone,” Kirby said, referring to Nasrallah’s death on Friday. But they will try to recover. We are observing in order to try to determine what they do to try to fill this power vacuum. It’s going to be complicated.
Kirby dodged questions about whether the government agrees with the way Israel is going after Hezbollah leaders, who the Israelis say have built command structures and other facilities adjacent to or under civilian areas. According to Lebanon authorities, the offensive has also claimed the lives of many innocent civilians.
The White House maintains its call for both parties to carry out a temporary 21-day ceasefire that the United States, France and other nations proposed last week within the framework of the United Nations General Assembly.
If they want these people to be able to return home safely and permanently, we believe that the diplomatic route is the correct one, Kirby declared during an appearance on the State of the Union program on CNN.
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