The comments of American officials came after about two weeks of ignoring Israel A proposal put forward by the United States and other Western and Arab powers to stop attacks between Israel and Hezbollah for 21 days.
American officials told CNN that the United States “is not trying to revive the proposal,” and “has stopped its efforts to restrict Israeli operations in Lebanon And against Iran.”
The officials explained that fears are growing within the administration of US President Joe Biden that “what Israel promised would be a limited operation in Lebanon will soon grow into a broader and longer-term conflict.”
The proposal to stop the escalation for 21 days took the same path as the bitter negotiations to end Gaza warwhich was also mediated by the United States with Egypt and Qatar, but it faltered and did not yield anything in the end.
The violent Israeli attacks on various areas of Lebanon, especially the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, led to the killing of more than 1,400 people in less than 3 weeks, and the displacement of at least one million Lebanese.
The United States’ inability to stop Israel’s intense bombing campaign and ground invasion of Lebanon reinforced the assumption that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is ignoring the Biden administration’s calls for greater restraint, just as it did in Gaza.
According to US officials told CNN, Israel was initially planning a much larger ground incursion into Lebanon, before it was convinced US By reducing the size of its ground operations.
But officials stressed that “the influence of the United States is limited when it comes to Israeli military operations,” as in the Gaza war.
“We couldn’t stop them from taking action, but we could at least try to determine what that action would look like,” said a senior US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe deliberations with Israel.
On Monday, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that the United States “supports Israel’s targeting of militants and the destruction of Hezbollah’s infrastructure.”
However, he added: “We are fully aware of the many times in the past where Israel participated in what seemed like limited operations and then remained for months or years. In the end, this is not the result we want to see.”
In the same context, the officials who spoke to CNN acknowledged the limited American influence on what Israel decides to do against IranIn response to the missile attack launched by the latter last week.
They said the United States was urging Israel not to over-escalate with a retaliatory strike, but warned that “what Israel sees as a proportionate attack may not be consistent with what the rest of the world, including the United States, may consider a measured response.”
And last week he said Biden He would not support Israel striking Iranian nuclear facilities, but it is not clear whether the United States has succeeded in convincing Israel to take that option off the table.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant previously said that Israel is “coordinating closely with the United States as it prepares to respond to Iran, but it will ultimately make its own decision on how to respond.”
“Everything is on the table,” Gallant explained to CNN on Sunday.
