The United States and its allies worked to prevent an Iranian attack on Israel and avert a wider regional war as concerns grew that a retaliatory strike could come at any time for the killing of a senior Hamas leader in Tehran.
The Biden administration moved additional forces to the region and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, met with senior officials from Qatar and Egypt, the two countries that helped lead negotiations for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas militants, on Monday, according to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.
“It is a critical moment,” Blinken told reporters in brief remarks Monday in Washington. “We are engaged in intense diplomacy, virtually around the clock.”with a very simple message: all parties must refrain from escalation, all parties must take steps to ease tensions.”
Attention has turned to preparing for and possibly mitigating an attack by Iran, which has warned it will respond after blaming Israel for killing a senior Hamas political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, at a government guesthouse in Tehran on July 31. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for Haniyeh’s death, even as the country’s military said another operation on Sunday killed a senior Hamas commander, Jaber Aziz.
The U.S. pressure was just one element of a broader effort by officials seeking to prevent an escalation of retaliation between Iran and Israel that could push the region into an all-out regional war.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi made a rare trip to Iran over the weekend and met with Iran’s acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani. President Joe Biden also spoke with Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Monday.according to the White House. Qatar, which has mediated between Iran and the United States in the past, has also been in contact with the Islamic Republic, according to a person familiar with the matter.
In Israel, patience is wearing thin after days of waiting for retaliation promised by Iran and its proxies. One senior lawmaker even proposed a preemptive measure.
“It is beneath our dignity to sit there worrying instead of taking the initiative,” Yuli Edelstein, head of parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and a senior member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conservative Likud party, said in a speech. “We know how to do it and we should do it.”
Iran’s stance
For its part, Iran has reaffirmed that it wants to avoid an all-out war with Israel, while once again vowing to retaliate.
“Strengthening stability and security in the region will be achieved by punishing the aggressor and creating deterrence against Israel and its adventurism,” a spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry told reporters in Tehran on Monday. The Islamic Republic does not want to escalate tensions, but has the right to punish Israel under international law, he added.
The heightened tensions, nearly 10 months into the war in Hamas-ruled Gaza, have scared many foreign airlines away from the skies over Israel and neighboring Lebanon, where Hezbollah has influence. The Pentagon has beefed up its presence in the Middle East, including with missile-intercepting warships.
