U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken affirmed that his country hopes the current conflict between Israel and Hamas does not spread to Lebanon.
In an interview with CNN, Blinken said: “One of the reasons President Joe Biden was so clear from the first moments was that nowhere else should try to take advantage of this situation.”
“It is imperative that we do everything we can to ensure that there is no other front in this conflict, including Hezbollah and Lebanon.”
The American official asserted that they were doing their job in trying to make sure that things kept calm, or Iran was trying to use this in other places.
“So we’ve been very clear about that. And we’re also using every tool that we have at our disposal, and our diplomacy, to make sure that others are doing the same thing.”
A senior U.S. official recently highlighted that the Biden administration is working with Israel following the deadly attack between the Hamas group and the Israeli forces.
“We want to make sure this is contained in Gaza,” the official told reporters.
The official indicated that there was no indication yet that Iran was involved in the Hamas attack but vowed to look into it. “We always share timely intelligence,” he said.
Biden spoke by phone to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to offer U.S. support. The two leaders have had strained relations but met in New York last month in a show of solidarity.
“I made clear to Prime Minister Netanyahu that we stand ready to offer all appropriate means of support to the government and people of Israel,” Biden said in a written statement.
The American leader directed his national security team to stay in touch about the situation with countries throughout the region including Egypt, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Oman, the UAE, and European allies.
